THE BÁB
The Herald of
the Day of Days

THE BÁB
The Herald of the Day of Days

by
H. M. BALYUZI

GEORGE RONALD
OXFORD

First published 1973 by George Ronald
46 High Street, Kidlington, Oxford, OX5 2DN
Reprinted 1973 and 1974
Paper edition 1975
Reprinted 1994

© H. M. BALYUZI 1973

ALL RIGHTS RESERVED

This book is copyright under the Berne Convention. It may not be reproduced in whole or in part, in any form (except for fair dealing for the purposes of private study, research, criticism or review as permitted under the Copyright Act, 1956) without written permission from the publisher.

ISBN 0 85398 054 3

EXTRACTS FROM
Nabíl, The Dawn-Breakers
Copyright © 1932 National Spiritual Assembly of the Bahá'ís
of the United States
Shoghi Effendi, God Passes By
Copyright © 1944, 1971 National Spiritual Assembly of the Bahá'ís
of the United States
WORLD ORDER, A Bahá'í Magazine
Copyright © 1966 National Spiritual Assembly of the Bahá'ís
of the United States

Printed by The Cromwell Press,
Broughton Gifford, Melksham,
Wiltshire SN12 8PH

Contents

TO
THE SHINING MEMORY
OF
A LONE AND NOBLE WOMAN
WHO SUFFERED IN SILENCE
FOR FORTY YEARS
THIS STORY OF HER BELOVED HUSBAND
IS DEDICATED

Foreword

The present book completes the trilogy on the lives of the Founders of the Bahá'í Faith. However, now that additional material is at my disposal, it is my hope to expand at a future date the volume on the life of Bahá'u'lláh, and also to write a supplement to the volume on the life of `Abdu'l-Bahá.

This book is the first in the range of Bahá'í literature to make extensive use of official documents from governmental archives. I am greatly indebted to Moojan Momen who has generously shared with me the results of his able research in the Public Record Office of London and elsewhere.

The two British Foreign Secretaries who received news and dispatches regarding the Báb and the Bábís were the Earl of Aberdeen, who held office from September 1841 to July 1846, under Sir Robert Peel; and Viscount Palmerston, whose tenure of office extended from July 1846 to January 1852, under Lord John Russell. The British envoy chiefly involved in forwarding such reports to London was Lt.-Col. (later Sir Justin) Sheil, the Minister in Ṭihrán. Lord Palmerston's letters to him (F.O. 248/134) state that his dispatches concerning the Báb and the Bábís were 'laid before the Queen'.

My deep gratitude goes to Abul-Qasim Afnan, who has unstintingly made available to me the chronicle-history and the autobiography of his father, the late Ḥájí Mírzá Ḥabíbu'lláh, as well as letters written by and to the relatives of the Báb, together with many other documents of inestimable value.

It should be borne in mind that apart from quotations from the Writings of the Báb, speeches attributed to Him or to anyone else in these pages must not be taken as exact reportage of words spoken at the time. They only convey the sense and purport of what was said on those occasions. Obviously no one was taking notes. It is possible, however, that a few short sentences here and there, which immediately engrave themselves on the mind, are exact utterances, the very words spoken.

As the bibliography indicates I have consulted a number of books; but of printed works, the main sources have been God Passes By and Nabíl's Narrative, The Dawn-Breakers. I am much indebted to the Bahá'í Publishing Trust, Wilmette, Illinois, for permission to quote from these and other sources, as well as to Cambridge University Press, the Public Record Office, George Allen & Unwin Ltd., A. & C. Black Ltd., Faber & Faber Ltd., William Heinemann Ltd., Methuen & Co. Ltd., and World Order, A Bahá'í Magazine. Full acknowledgment is made in the bibliography and notes.

I am profoundly grateful to the Hands of the Cause Paul Haney and Abul-Qasim Faizi for reading the manuscript and for their review and advice. As in the past Marion Hofman's generous help has smoothed the path to publication. My indebtedness to her is immense. And without my wife's assistance and support I could not have completed my task.

I should also like to thank Miss Dorothy Wigington, Mr. Farhang Afnan and Mr. Rustom Sabit for their care in reading the proofs, and Mr. Horst W. Kolodziej for his excellent reproduction of a number of old documents and photographs.

Finally, a word as to the Prologue; this in my view provides a necessary background for the story of the Báb. But should the reader find in it too many unfamiliar facts, he may turn immediately to the first chapter.

H. M. BALYUZI

London
October 1972

A Note on the Construction of Persian Names

In times past the people of Persia had no surnames, but in many instances they were known by the name of the district, city, town, or even the village from which they came: for example, Khurásání, Mázindarání, Ṭihrání, Iṣfahání, and Shírází.

There were also various honorific prefixes and suffixes by which a person was distinguished. A descendant of the Prophet Muḥammad had (and has) the prefix of 'Siyyid'. At times, 'Mírzá' took the place of 'Siyyid', and at times the two were used together. 'Mírzá' by itself did not denote any particular ancestry, except when placed after a proper name to mark royal descent.

The suffix 'Khán' served at one time as a title, but with passing years, it became merely honorific, even meaningless, and at no time was it a surname.

The prefix 'Ḥájí' or 'Ḥáj' indicated then, as now, one who had made the pilgrimage to Mecca. Mashhadí and Karbilá'í, as prefixes, marked pilgrimage to Mashhad or Karbilá, but as suffixes pointed out nativity.

There were also innumerable titles conferred by the sovereign in Írán, consisting of diverse combinations, sometimes ludicrous, sometimes grammatically impossible. Occasionally they indicated a definite rank and profession. As time passed, these titles multiplied absurdly, until they were swept away by legislation in the 1920's.

Finally, a person was often distinguished from others by a combination of prefixes and suffixes attached to his name which, if omitted, might cause him to be taken for another person.

Today the situation is much changed, but for the period described in this book, the author can identify people only by the names they then used, however difficult they may be.

Quotations are reproduced in their original form, even though differing from the spelling and transliteration of Persian words adopted in this book. Translations from Persian sources are by the author unless otherwise attributed.

The text of the Authorised Version of the Bible is Crown copyright and the extracts used herein are reproduced by permission.

The Báb, the Exalted One, is the Morn of Truth,
Whose Light shineth throughout all regions.
`ABDU'L-BAHÁ

O people of the Báb! sorely persecuted,
compelled to silence, but steadfast now as at
Sheykh Ṭabarsí and Zanján, what destiny is
concealed for you behind the veil of the Future?
EDWARD GRANVILLE BROWNE

PROLOGUE

I

About the time that the thirteen colonies of North America were gaining their independence to form the nucleus of the mighty Republic of the West, France was inching her way towards a revolution such as the world had never seen, and Britain was striding along the road to a revolution of a different kind, industrial, agrarian and economic in nature, a cleric of the Islamic Shí`ah persuasion left his island-home in the Persian Gulf for the great centres of Shí`ah learning and Shí`ah devotion in `Iráq. His purpose was to find a much larger audience in order to give voice to thoughts and presentiments that had developed with his years.

Shaykh Aḥmad-i-Aḥsá'í (1743-1826), the founder of the Shaykhí school, belonged to the ancient tribe of Banú-Ṣakhr, and his family originated from the region of Aḥsá on the Arabian mainland. His father's name was Shaykh Zayni'd-Dín, and Baḥrayn had been their home. Shaykh Aḥmad first visited Najaf, where the Tomb of `Alí, the first Imám, cousin and son-in-law of the Prophet Muḥammad, is situated. Then in Karbilá, close by the Shrine of the martyred Ḥusayn, the third Imám, he began to preach and a circle of earnest students gathered round him. He asked the leading Shí`ah divines of the holy cities of `Iráq to issue him a licence which would give him recognition as a mujtahid in his own right, that is, a divine empowered to interpret and prescribe. They all declared that they considered Shaykh Aḥmad to be a man of knowledge and talent superior to their own, and that their testimonial was written solely at his request.

The fame of Shaykh Aḥmad soon spread throughout Írán. Fatḥ-`Alí Sháh (reigned 1797-1834) and Muḥammad-`Alí Mírzá,[A] a son of the Sháh who held the life-long tenure of the governorship of Kirmánsháh, were particularly desirous to meet him. But Shaykh Aḥmad preferred to go to Írán by way of Búshihr (Bushire) in the south, rather than by the nearer and more accessible route of Kirmánsháh in the west. From Búshihr he went to Shíráz and thence to Yazd, where he stayed for a number of years. Siyyid Káẓim-i-Rashtí, a young man barely out of his teens, who shared the same views, joined him there (sometime in 1231 A.H.: 1815-16). Shaykh Aḥmad was then making his final arrangements to go on pilgrimage to the holy city of Mashhad,[B] prior to his visit to Ṭihrán. He received Siyyid Káẓim with great affection and asked him to remain at Yazd to take up his own patient work of many years. In Mashhad and later in Ṭihrán, Shaykh Aḥmad was shown every mark of high respect and reverence.

Eventually Siyyid Káẓim travelled north to be in his company, and together they went to Kirmánsháh, as the Prince-Governor had been urgently begging his father to let Shaykh Aḥmad visit him. They stayed in Kirmánsháh as long as the Governor lived. After his premature death, they departed for Karbilá, where Shaykh Aḥmad, his zeal unabated and his powers untouched by advancing years, preached and taught. He was in his early eighties when he took the road to Mecca and Medina. From that journey he did not return and lies buried in the famed cemetery of Baqi`, in the vicinity of the Tomb of the Prophet Muḥammad.

Shaykh Aḥmad's constant theme was the near advent of the Deliverer of the Latter Days, promised to the world of Islám, the Qá'im of the House of Muḥammad or the Mihdí (Mahdí).[1] In the course of his last pilgrimage to the holy cities of Arabia, he told a merchant from Iṣfahán[C] who was with him: 'You will attain the presence of the Báb; salute Him on my behalf.'[2] Shaykh Aḥmad did not believe in physical resurrection nor in the physical ascent (Mi`ráj)[D] of the Prophet Muḥammad to heaven on the night that the Angel Gabriel took Him to view the celestial world. Mi`ráj was an experience of the spirit, Shaykh Aḥmad maintained. Moreover he asserted that the signs and portents of the coming of the Qá'im, given by the Prophet and the Imáms, were allegorical. These and similar doctrines were anathema to the orthodox, but while Shaykh Aḥmad lived, royal patronage muted their hostile criticism.

Siyyid Káẓim (1793-1843), who, in accordance with the will of Shaykh Aḥmad, succeeded him in guiding his disciples, was the son of Siyyid Qásim of Rasht, a town in northern Írán close to the Caspian Sea. He came from a family of well-known merchants and was no more than thirty-three years old when he occupied the seat of authority. The orthodox divines now began their vitriolic assaults in earnest until, at last, Siyyid Káẓim felt that he needed solid support in Írán from the ranks of the orthodox. For that purpose he chose one of his ablest disciples, Mullá Ḥusayn, a native of the small town of Bushrúyih in Khurásán, to go to Iṣfahán and secure the aid of Ḥájí Siyyid Muḥammad-Báqir-i-Rashtí, a noted divine whose influence was felt far and wide. Mullá Ḥusayn succeeded brilliantly in accomplishing the mission entrusted to him, obtained the support of that famous man in writing, and then proceeded to Mashhad to acquire a similar pledge from yet another powerful divine.

In the meantime not only did Siyyid Káẓim suffer from the intrigues and onslaughts of his adversaries headed by Siyyid Ibráhím-i-Qazvíní, but the whole of Karbilá was thrown into turmoil. These disorders were of long standing and gradually the authority of the Ottoman government had ceased to exist. Within the town there were several factions at odds with one another, but all determined to resist the re-establishment of Ottoman power. Two successive Válís (governor-generals) of `Iráq tried to force the people of Karbilá to submission, but failed conspicuously. However, in the closing months of the year 1842, Najíb Páshá, a man resolute and even obstinate, came to occupy the post of Válí. Affairs in Karbilá had gradually gone from bad to worse. Lawlessness had increased and mob rule prevailed. Najíb Páshá's first thought was to resolve this problem which had baffled his predecessors. He tried to negotiate a settlement, but neither he nor the rebels of Karbilá could really trust one another. Najíb Páshá moved near-by to Musayyib and sent Sar`askar (Colonel) Sa`du'lláh Páshá with a small force to reduce the town. Negotiations proceeded apace. Emissaries came and went. Persian princes, who lived in Karbilá, took part in the negotiations, but nothing was achieved.

During those fatal weeks, at the end of the year 1842 and the beginning of 1843, Siyyid Káẓim, who was greatly respected both for his wisdom and humanity,[E] took a leading role, urging all parties to act with moderation and in a spirit of conciliation. Twice, in company with a small delegation, he visited the camps of Najíb Páshá and Sa`du'lláh Páshá outside Karbilá. Lieutenant-Colonel Farrant, the British Special Commissioner, reported his efforts to Constantinople:
claimed the throne of Írán. He showed great benevolence
towards the divines of Karbilá and Najaf, sent them money and stood up for them. However, he was unsuccessful and betook himself to Karbilá. There he fell on hard times and suffered poverty. He expected the divines to come to his help and applied to them, one by one. But none heeded him. One night he and his family had to go to bed hungry. At midnight he heard a knock on his door. When he opened it he found someone, who had pulled his `abá over his head so as to hide his face. This man put a purse with money in it into his hands and went away.

'Time passed. Indigence and want recurred. Again the same person, head covered with `abá, came at midnight, handed a sum of money and went away without a word. To the repeated question "who are you?" he gave no answer. Then, that man came a third time with a purse containing money. This time `Alí-Sháh followed him and saw him enter the house of Ḥájí Siyyid Káẓim and shut the door. `Alí-Sháh related this event in many gatherings. He used to say: "O people! I am not a Shaykhí, but this deed is the work of righteousness. None but a man of truth would act in this way."'[3]

The Chief Priest Hajee Seid Kausem did all in his power to prevent hostilities, he preached against their proceedings, he was abused and threatened, they would not listen to him—this I have heard from many people at Kerbella—at this time all were unanimous in defending the place

... to the very last he entreated them to listen to the Pacha but without avail, he shewed great courage on the occasion, as he had all the chief Geramees[F] and Mollahs against him.[4]

Unhappily, his counsel was ignored by both rebels and Turks. In January 1843, after a siege of twenty-four days, the holy city was taken by assault, causing great suffering to the innocent inhabitants. The files of the Public Record Office in London contain several documents that throw light on this episode, as well as on the central part played by Siyyid Káẓim. (See [Appendix I].)

During the siege Ḥájí Siyyid Káẓim had spent himself in an effort to forestall violence and protect all parties to the conflict. Although only fifty years of age, he became aware that his life was nearing its close. He was warned of this, we are told, by the dream of an Arab shepherd who recounted it to him. When his disciples expressed their distress, Siyyid Káẓim replied:

Is not your love for me for the sake of that true One whose advent we all await? Would you not wish me to die, that the promised One may be revealed?[5]

The year 1844 was about to dawn when Siyyid Káẓim breathed his last and was laid to rest near the tomb of Imám Ḥusayn. His death was reported by Farrant, who wrote on January 24th 1844 to Sir Stratford Canning, sending a copy in February to Lt.-Col. (later Sir) Justin Sheil,[6] the British chargé d'affaires in Ṭihrán:

Hajee Seid Kausem one of the Chief Priests of Kerbella died lately on his return from a visit to Samerrah—Seid Ibrahim Kasveenee the other Chief Priest who was greatly opposed to him, will now enjoy full power, and all contention between the two religious parties will cease.[7]

When Mullá Ḥusayn-i-Bushrú'í returned to Karbilá from his highly successful mission in Írán, his teacher was dead. He had not appointed anyone to succeed him.

II

To follow the events of this narrative, it may be helpful to consider their background in some aspects of Iranian history.[G]

Muḥammad Sháh, the third monarch of the Qájár dynasty, ruled the land in 1843, but real power rested in the hands of Ḥájí Mírzá Áqásí, his unprepossessing Grand Vizier. The Qájárs were a tribe of Turkish origin. Áqá Muḥammad Khán, a eunuch chieftain of this tribe, arose in the year 1779 to carve out a kingdom for himself. Fifteen years later he finally won the crown of Írán when he captured and brutally murdered Luṭf-`Alí Khán, the last ruler of the Zand dynasty, who was brave and high-minded but piteously young. The eunuch king was utterly and savagely ruthless, and he managed to hold off the Russians in the area of the Caucasus until 1797 when he was struck down by three assassins. He was succeeded by his nephew, Fatḥ-`Alí Sháh, a man of soft heart and weak will, who was highly uxorious. At his death in 1834, fifty-three sons and forty-six daughters survived him.

During the reign of Fatḥ-`Alí Sháh, Írán lost heavily to Russia in a series of disastrous wars. Her ministers, comfortably cocooned in their isolation from the currents of world affairs, and totally ignorant of the realities of the European situation, believed that with the aid of the Emperor of France the Russian menace could be thwarted. Hard on the heels of General Gardanne, Bonaparte's envoy, not one but two envoys from the more familiar 'Ingríz' (English) came in 1808. Sir Harford Jones had been dispatched from the court of King George III and Sir John Malcolm from India. In 1801 the latter, on behalf of the Marquis of Wellesley, Governor-General of India, concluded an abortive treaty with the shrewd and immensely ambitious Grand Vizier[H] of Fatḥ-`Alí Sháh. But in the intervening years Bonaparte, subsequent to his débacle in Egypt and Syria, showered his dubious favours on the Persians, and the British connexion was conveniently ignored by the ministers of Fatḥ-`Alí Sháh, who had entered into the Treaty of Finkenstein (1807) with the French. Moreover, in the same period, the most capable Ḥájí Ibráhím Khán, who had contributed more than anyone to the downfall of the Zand dynasty and the ensuing victories of the eunuch king, fell from power and, as legend has it, met his death in a boiling cauldron.

Indeed, high hopes centred on what the Emperor of France would do for Írán, only to be dashed by Bonaparte's change of policy; when he met Tsar Alexander I at Tilsit (1807) he did not remember any of his promises. And so General Gardanne was ignominiously ousted from Ṭihrán, and Sir Harford Jones and Sir John Malcolm were left at peace, to glower at each other, much to the amusement and also surprise and embarrassment of the Persian ministers. But as Napoleon's star waned, so did the interest of the British in Persian affairs. The wars with Russia went on until the Persians acknowledged defeat in the Treaty of Gulistán of 1813.

Amidst abysmal ignorance, nepotism and malpractice which abounded in the realm, there stood two men in particular, untouched by corruption, who were fully aware of the needs of their country: Prince `Abbás Mírzá, the heir to the throne, and his vizier, Mírzá Abu'l-Qásim, Qá'im-Maqám-i-Faráhání. But their attempts at reform could not obtain the success they deserved because of the obscurantism surrounding the person of the sovereign. It was this Crown Prince who sent the first group of Iranian students to Britain to learn the crafts of the West. Their story, which does no credit to the government in London, is preserved in a number of documents lodged in the Public Record Office. Incidentally, one of these men, a student of medicine, was named Mírzá Ḥájí Bábá, the eponym of the chief character of James Morier's well-known satire.

Prince `Abbás Mírzá, worsted in the field by the Russians, now tried to provide his country with a modern army and engaged British instructors. As in the past, Ṭihrán gave him little help. Yet he was under constant pressure to resume hostilities. The divines, particularly, were urging it.[I] Yet Russia had no desire to fight; nor had Fatḥ-`Alí Sháh: war was too expensive. Prince Menchikov arrived from St. Petersburg (the present-day Leningrad) not to dictate but to negotiate. But the demands of those who sought war—the clerics and the powerful court faction of Alláh-Yár Khán[J]—proved irresistible; Menchikov returned to St. Petersburg.

In the war that soon followed the Persians were soundly beaten and Russian forces surged forward to occupy the city of Tabríz. The first to abandon the field was a group of clerics, who, with raised standards, had accompanied the army. By the Treaty of Turkumancháy (1828), onerous and humiliating in the extreme, Írán was excluded from the Caucasus. In addition to the payment of heavy indemnities, she lost her rights in the Caspian Sea and the frontier between Russia and Írán was fixed on the river Aras.

Prince `Abbás Mírzá was now a sad and broken man. Rash actions forced upon him had brought total desolation. His modern army was shattered. Because he knew of the intrigues that plagued his father's court, and to make certain that his eldest son would not be left undefended, he asked for guarantees from the Tsar, which were readily given. After this ordeal of defeat and submission Prince `Abbás Mírzá did not live long. He died at the age of forty-five, and a year later his father followed him to the grave.

The eldest son of `Abbás Mírzá, named heir-apparent by Fatḥ-`Alí Sháh, came into his heritage by a combination of the assured support of Britain and Russia, and the wise strategy of Qá'im-Maqám. Sir John Campbell, the British Minister in Ṭihrán, and Sir Henry Lindesay Bethune, who took command of the forces loyal to the son of `Abbás Mírzá, brought him safely from Tabríz to Ṭihrán. Qá'im-Maqám, in the meantime, secured the backing of influential men in the capital, where another son of the late king had styled himself `Adil Sháh[K] and was claiming the throne. But his reign was brief, and soon Muḥammad Sháh, the heir-apparent, was well entrenched in Ṭihrán, for Sir Henry Lindesay Bethune (whom a Persian historian calls Mr. Lenzi) easily routed other pretenders.[8]

Muḥammad Sháh did not wish to seem beholden to the British officials who had helped him to his throne, nor did he show much gratitude to Qá'im-Maqám, the architect of his victory. Within a year he contrived the death of that great minister who had served him and his father so well. By the death of Qá'im-Maqám, treacherously designed, Írán sustained a tremendous and irreparable loss. Qá'im-Maqám was not only a brilliant statesman, but also a master of prose whose style rescued the language from encrusted artificialities.[L]

His successor as the Grand Vizier was Ḥájí Mírzá Áqásí, a man ignorant and devoid of all graces, affecting deep piety. This is how Sir Henry Layard[9] saw him in 1840:

We waited upon the Prime Minister, the Haji Mirza Agasi, who was then the man of the greatest influence, power and authority in Persia. The Shah had committed to him almost the entire government of his kingdom, occupying himself but little with public affairs, aware of his own incapacity for conducting them. 'The Haji'—the name by which he was familiarly known—was, by all accounts, a statesman of craft and cunning, but of limited abilities. He was cruel and treacherous, proud and overbearing, although he affected the humility of a pious mulla who had performed the pilgrimage to Mecca and the holy shrines of the Imaums. The religious character which he had assumed made him intolerant and bigoted, and he was known to be a fanatical hater of Christians. He had been the Shah's tutor and instructor in the Koran, and had acquired a great influence over his pupil, who had raised him to the lofty position which he then held. He had the reputation of being an accomplished Persian and Arabic scholar, but he was entirely ignorant of all European languages. His misgovernment, and the corruption and general oppression which everywhere existed had brought Persia to the verge of ruin. Distress, misery, and discontent prevailed to an extent previously unknown. He was universally execrated as the cause of the misfortunes and misery from which the people and the State were suffering. We found him seated on his hams, in the Persian fashion, on a fine Kurdish carpet spread in a handsome hall. Before him was a large tray filled with ices and a variety of fruit.... He was a man of small stature, with sharp and somewhat mean and forbidding features, and a loud shrill voice. His dress was simple—almost shabby—as became a mulla and a man devoted to religious life.... It was evident that the Haji suspected that we were spies and agents of the British Government. However, he declared that the Shah was willing that we should visit any part of his territories where we could travel in safety, and that orders had been issued for the preparation of our farman [royal decree]; for his Majesty had said that we belonged to a friendly nation, and his quarrel was not with England but with Lord Palmerston, who had treated Persia ill, and had recalled the Queen's Ambassador[10] without sufficient cause....

Nor was Írán on good terms with the Ottomans. Layard's book, Early Adventures, indicates the considerable extent of the incursions which the Turks had made into Iranian territory. The meeting between Layard and Ḥájí Mírzá Áqásí in 1840 took place in Hamadán, not far from the frontier, where Muḥammad Sháh was encamped with his army. The relations between the Ottoman and Iranian governments were further strained by the storming and sacking of Karbilá in January 1843, where the chief sufferers were Persian. We have seen how the Persian princes living in Karbilá at the time of its investment by the troops of Najíb Páshá took a hand in negotiations. They were exiles and fugitives who had contested with Muḥammad Sháh and offended him, and senior among them was `Alí-Sháh, the Ẓillu's-Sulṭán.

Yet another issue reared its ugly head to exacerbate relations between Írán and the Ottoman Empire, that of Shí`ah against Sunní. Sheil, the British Minister in Ṭihrán, reported to the Foreign Secretary, the Earl of Aberdeen:

If the Moollahs, and in particular the chief priest of Ispahan, Hajee Syed Moollah Mahomed Baukir, whose religious influence in Persia is powerful, should use the present opportunity for regaining their former position by exerting their authority among the people, and preaching a crusade against the rival branch of Mahommedanism, it is not easy to foresee the consequences.[11]

Indeed, reported Sheil, the Persian Foreign Minister and Ḥájí Mírzá Áqásí were considering the possibility of war.[12]

This chief priest of Iṣfahán, mentioned by Sheil, was the same divine from whom Mullá Ḥusayn-i-Bushrú'í obtained unqualified support for Siyyid Káẓim-i-Rashtí.

It is helpful to compare the authority of the divines of these two great branches of Islám. The Shí`ah divine in contradistinction to the Sunní has the power of 'Ijtihád', that is, issuing ex cathedra decrees and judgments. His position is, in a sense, analogous to that of the English judge who can, within the boundaries of equity and common law, establish precedents. The Sunní divine belongs to one of the four schools of Islamic jurisprudence: the Ḥanafí, the Sháfi`í, the Málikí and the Ḥanbalí. The jurisconsults, who founded these four schools or rites, which are named after them, set certain standards from which the Sunní divine cannot deviate. The Shí`ah divine, on the other hand, relies exclusively on the text of the Qur'án and the Traditions ascribed to the Prophet and the Imáms, all of which are wide open to interpretation. Moreover, the Shí`ah mujtahid—the divine who pronounces ex cathedra—does so, it is understood, as the deputy of the Ṣáḥibu'z-Zamán, the Lord of the Age.

CHAPTER 1
ALL HAIL SHÍRÁZ

All hail, Shiraz, hail! Oh site without peer!
May God be the Watchman before thy gate,
That the feet of Misfortune enter not here!
Lest my Ruknabad be left desolate....
—Ḥáfiẓ

In the afternoon of May 22nd 1844 a traveller stood outside the gates of Shíráz. He had come from Karbilá, on a spiritual quest to his native land of Írán. A boat had taken him to Búshihr on the Persian Gulf. From that insalubrious port his route had lain over forbidding mountains to the renowned city of Shíráz. He was accompanied by his brother and his nephew, both barely twenty years old, and he himself but in his early thirties. They had undertaken this journey for a purpose which to many seemed fantastic. But for themselves and many more like them it was real and urgent.

This traveller was the same Mullá Ḥusayn-i-Bushrú'í, who, after the accomplishment of his highly fruitful mission in Írán on behalf of Siyyid Káẓim-i-Rashtí, had reached Karbilá only to find his teacher dead. He had learned that Siyyid Káẓim's parting counsel to his disciples had been to leave their homes and their cloisters, to abandon their studies and their debates and go out into the world to seek 'the Lord of the Age' (Ṣáḥibu'z-Zamán) whose advent had for centuries been the hope of countless millions. His supernal light would soon break upon the world, Siyyid Káẓim had said. Mullá Ḥusayn together with a number of Siyyid Káẓim's disciples kept vigil for forty days in the old mosque of Kúfih, nearly in ruins, and then set out on different routes to do their master's bidding.

Mullá Ḥusayn was a man of profound scholarship and unbending will. Nothing daunted him. Now, reaching the gates of Shíráz, he sent his companions into the city to obtain lodgings, but he himself tarried for a while in the fields. His mind was occupied with the object of his quest, a quest that had brought him all those wearisome miles to Shíráz, the home and the resting-place of two of the greatest poets of Írán. Here, some five hundred years before, Ḥáfiẓ had composed his superb, ethereal lyrics. Here Sa`dí had lived a good part of his life and had written his lucid prose, his lambent verse. Here had worked and died a host of men celebrated both in their own days and thereafter. The air of Shíráz, the plain of Shíráz, the roses of Shíráz, the cypresses of Shíráz, have all been lavishly praised.

Forty-four years later, the young Edward Granville Browne, the future eminent orientalist of the University of Cambridge, looked at the plain of Shíráz from the heights facing the road to Búshihr, that mountain pass which is named Alláh-u-Akbar (God is the Greatest) because the traveller thus expresses his wonderment at beholding such a beauteous plain. Browne wrote:

Words cannot describe the rapture which overcame me as, after many a weary march, I gazed at length on the reality of that whereof I had so long dreamed, and found the reality not merely equal to, but far surpassing, the ideal which I had conceived. It is seldom enough in one's life that this occurs. When it does, one's innermost being is stirred with an emotion which baffles description, and which the most eloquent words can but dimly shadow forth.[1]

This was the city that Mullá Ḥusayn was about to enter. It was as if a magnet had drawn him, with his brother and his nephew, to Shíráz. Nor were they alone in being thus drawn.

On this hot afternoon of May 22nd, Mullá Ḥusayn was fatigued after the trying journey from the coast up the precipitous tracks of the rising plateau. But his mind was alert and his soul yearned for that peace which the attainment of his goal would bring him. As he walked and pondered he came face to face with a Youth of striking appearance. That young Man, who was gentle and gracious and whose turban proclaimed His descent from the Prophet Muḥammad, greeted him with great kindness. Mullá Ḥusayn was amazed and overwhelmed by the warmth of this unexpected welcome. It was the courtesy coupled with the dignified mien of this young Siyyid[M] which particularly impressed him. Then the young Man invited him to be His guest and to partake of the evening meal at His house. Mullá Ḥusayn mentioned that his companions had gone ahead and would be awaiting him, to which the young Siyyid replied: 'Commit them to the care of God; He will surely protect and watch over them'.[N]

'We soon found ourselves standing at the gate of a house of modest appearance,' Mullá Ḥusayn has recounted. 'He knocked at the door, which was soon opened by an Ethiopian servant. "Enter therein in peace, secure,"[O] were His words as He crossed the threshold and motioned me to follow Him. His invitation, uttered with power and majesty, penetrated my soul. I thought it a good augury to be addressed in such words, standing as I did on the threshold of the first house I was entering in Shíráz, a city the very atmosphere of which had produced already an indescribable impression upon me.'

Shíráz had cast its spell upon Mullá Ḥusayn. But little did he think that his youthful Host, whose utterance rang with authority, was that 'Lord of the Age', that 'Qá'im of the House of Muḥammad' whom he was seeking. Yet he could not escape the feeling that the unexpected encounter might in some way bring him near the end of his quest. At the same time he was uneasy at having left his brother and nephew with no news of himself. He further recounts: 'Overwhelmed with His acts of extreme kindness, I arose to depart. "The time for evening prayer is approaching," I ventured to observe. "I have promised my friends to join them at that hour in the Masjid-i-Ílkhání".[P] With extreme courtesy and calm He replied: "You must surely have made the hour of your return conditional upon the will and pleasure of God. It seems that His will has decreed otherwise. You need have no fear of having broken your pledge."' Such undoubted assurance should have made Mullá Ḥusayn aware that he was about to experience the supreme test of his life.

They prayed together. They sat down to converse. And suddenly his Host asked Mullá Ḥusayn: 'Whom, after Siyyid Káẓim, do you regard as his successor and your leader?' Furthermore, He asked: 'Has your teacher given you any detailed indications as to the distinguishing features of the promised One?' Mullá Ḥusayn replied that Siyyid Káẓim had laid the injunction upon his disciples to disperse after his death and seek 'the Lord of the Age', and indeed he had given them indications by which they could come to recognize Him. 'He is of a pure lineage, is of illustrious descent,' said Mullá Ḥusayn, 'and of the seed of Fáṭimih.[Q] As to His age, He is more than twenty and less than thirty. He is endowed with innate knowledge, ... abstains from smoking, and is free from bodily deficiency.'

There was silence—the pause that precedes the breaking of the dawn. Mullá Ḥusayn has told us that the silence was broken with 'vibrant voice' by his Host who declared to him:

Behold, all these signs are manifest in Me.

Mullá Ḥusayn was for the moment shocked and bewildered. He tried to resist a claim so breath-taking. But Truth looked him in the face. He marshalled arguments. But Truth is its own argument.

Mullá Ḥusayn said: 'He whose advent we await is a Man of unsurpassed holiness, and the Cause He is to reveal [is] a Cause of tremendous power. Many and diverse are the requirements which He who claims to be its visible embodiment must needs fulfil. How often has Siyyid Káẓim referred to the vastness of the knowledge of the promised One! How often did he say: "My own knowledge is but a drop compared with that with which He has been endowed. All my attainments are but a speck of dust in the face of the immensity of His knowledge. Nay, immeasurable is the difference!"'

In days gone by Mullá Ḥusayn had written a dissertation on some of the abstruse doctrines and teachings which Shaykh Aḥmad and Siyyid Káẓim had enunciated. He carried a copy of this treatise with him. He now presented it to his Host and asked Him to peruse it, and elucidate the mysteries which it contained. Not only did his Host after a rapid look through that treatise shed light upon it, He went far beyond it. Then Mullá Ḥusayn was given the proof of which he had ample knowledge. There is a Súrih (Arabic 'Súrah': chapter) in the Qur'án entitled the Súrih of Joseph.[R] It tells the story of Joseph, the son of Jacob, he whom his brothers betrayed and sold into slavery, who suffered imprisonment in Egypt, but rose to rule that land. It is highly allegorical. Siyyid Káẓim had told Mullá Ḥusayn, when requested by him to write a commentary on that chapter of the Qur'án: 'This is, verily, beyond me. He, that great One, who comes after me will, unasked, reveal it for you. That commentary will constitute one of the weightiest testimonies of His truth, and one of the clearest evidences of the loftiness of His position.'

Mullá Ḥusayn's Host told him: 'Now is the time to reveal the commentary on the Súrih of Joseph.'

'He took up His pen,' Mullá Ḥusayn related, 'and with incredible rapidity revealed the entire Súrih of Mulk, the first chapter of His commentary on the Súrih of Joseph. The overpowering effect of the manner in which He wrote was heightened by the gentle intonation of His voice which accompanied His writing. Not for one moment did He interrupt the flow of the verses which streamed from His pen. Not once did He pause till the Súrih of Mulk was finished. I sat enraptured by the magic of His voice and the sweeping force of His revelation.'

But Mullá Ḥusayn was anxious to rejoin his companions. Since that afternoon—and long ago it seemed—when he had sent them into the city and had himself lingered outside the city-gates, he had had no news of them nor they of him. So he rose and asked to be permitted to depart. His Host smilingly told him: 'If you leave in such a state, whoever sees you will assuredly say: "This poor youth has lost his mind."' 'At that moment,' Mullá Ḥusayn has said, 'the clock registered two hours and eleven minutes after sunset.'

In that moment a new Dispensation was born.

'This night,' said He who ushered in the new Dispensation, He who was to herald a new cycle, 'this very hour will, in the days to come, be celebrated as one of the greatest and most significant of all festivals.'[S]

The evening meal was now served. Mullá Ḥusayn afterwards recalled: 'That holy repast refreshed alike my body and soul. In the presence of my Host, at that hour, I felt as though I were feeding upon the fruits of Paradise.... Had my youthful Host no other claim to greatness, this were sufficient—that He received me with that quality of hospitality and loving-kindness which I was convinced no other human being could possibly reveal.

'I sat spellbound by His utterance, oblivious of time and of those who awaited me.... Sleep had departed from me that night. I was enthralled by the music of that voice which rose and fell as He chanted; now swelling forth as He revealed verses of the Qayyúmu'l-Asmá',[T] again acquiring ethereal, subtle harmonies as He uttered the prayers He was revealing. At the end of each invocation, He would repeat this verse: "Far from the glory of thy Lord, the All-Glorious, be that which His creatures affirm of Him! And peace be upon His Messengers! And praise be to God, the Lord of all beings!"[U]' Such was Mullá Ḥusayn's recollection of that momentous night.

Then He who stood as the Vicegerent of God on earth thus addressed Mullá Ḥusayn, who only a few hours before had been so anxious, tormented and unsure:

O thou who art the first to believe in Me! Verily I say, I am the Báb, the Gate of God, and thou art the Bábu'l-Báb, the gate of that Gate. Eighteen souls must, in the beginning, spontaneously and of their own accord, accept Me and recognise the truth of My Revelation. Unwarned and uninvited, each of these must seek independently to find Me. And when their number is complete, one of them must needs be chosen to accompany Me on My pilgrimage to Mecca and Medina. There I shall deliver the Message of God to the Sharíf of Mecca.

And then He laid this injunction upon 'the first to believe' in Him: 'It is incumbent upon you not to divulge, either to your companions or to any other soul, that which you have seen and heard.'

'This Revelation,' Mullá Ḥusayn has further related, 'so suddenly and impetuously thrust upon me, came as a thunderbolt which, for a time, seemed to have benumbed my faculties. I was blinded by its dazzling splendour and overwhelmed by its crushing force. Excitement, joy, awe, and wonder stirred the depths of my soul. Predominant among these emotions was a sense of gladness and strength which seemed to have transfigured me. How feeble and impotent, how dejected and timid, I had felt previously! Then I could neither write nor walk, so tremulous were my hands and feet. Now, however, the knowledge of His Revelation had galvanised my being. I felt possessed of such courage and power that were the world, all its peoples and its potentates, to rise against me, I would, alone and undaunted, withstand their onslaught. The universe seemed but a handful of dust in my grasp.'

On that early morning of May 23rd 1844 when Mullá Ḥusayn stepped out into the streets of Shíráz, his heart brimming with joy, he abandoned a priestly career which would have brought him high honours. He abandoned it willingly and knowingly for a task which, though great and noble, would bring him jeers and humiliation. He was well-known amongst the circle of the divines who exercised authority. He had the capacity, the intelligence and the learning which would have placed him in years to come in the forefront of the spiritual guides of the nation. Power and riches would have been his. But by giving his allegiance to the young Siyyid of Shíráz whom he had met under such strange circumstances, Mullá Ḥusayn renounced all this, and chose a path in the opposite direction.

Mullá Ḥusayn was not alone in his high resolve. Others with similar prospects of a clerical vocation journeyed to Shíráz in search of light and truth. They too had set out at the bidding of Siyyid Káẓim. As if by a magnet, they were drawn to Shíráz. How can one explain it otherwise? They had no intimation that in this city lived the One whom they sought. A force far greater than themselves led their steps to Shíráz, to their journey's end. As ordained by the Báb, they found Him, each one, independently. They were true, sincere and eager and they had their reward.

The last to arrive was a youth of twenty-two, whose home was in Bárfurúsh[V] in the province of Mázindarán which borders the Caspian Sea. When he was a boy in his early teens, his father, Áqá Muḥammad-Ṣáliḥ, had died. Devoting himself to the pursuit of learning he had joined the circle of Siyyid Káẓim in Karbilá. Eventually, he became an outstanding disciple of that remarkable teacher. It is recorded that the night before this youth, whose name was Mullá Muḥammad-`Ali, reached Shíráz, the Báb told Mullá Ḥusayn that on the following day one would arrive whose acceptance of the new theophany would 'complete the number of My chosen disciples'. Next evening as the Báb, accompanied by Mullá Ḥusayn, was going towards His house, they encountered a young man whose dress and appearance showed the effects of a long journey. The newcomer went to Mullá Ḥusayn whom he knew well as a fellow-disciple of Siyyid Káẓim, greeted him and immediately asked whether he had found the object of his quest. Mullá Ḥusayn was not at liberty to divulge the fact that he had, and he tried to pacify his friend and avoid the subject. It was useless, for that youth had seen the Báb. His retort to Mullá Ḥusayn was astounding: 'Why seek you to hide Him from me? I can recognise Him by His gait. I confidently testify that none besides Him, whether in the East or in the West, can claim to be the Truth. None other can manifest the power and majesty that radiate from His holy person.' Mullá Ḥusayn was amazed, and leaving the newcomer he walked on and told the Báb what had transpired. Having already anticipated the arrival of that youth, although he had certainly not received any word from him, the Báb observed: 'Marvel not at his strange behaviour. We have in the world of the spirit been communing with that youth. We know him already.... Go to him and summon him forthwith to Our presence.' Thus did Mullá Muḥammad-`Alíy-i-Bárfurúshí, whom the Báb honoured with the title of Quddús (the Most Holy), attain his heart's desire.

These disciples of the Báb are called the Letters of the Living.[W] All but one met the Báb face to face, and recognized in Him the Lord of the Age whom they sought. That single exception was a gifted woman, an accomplished writer of verse, courageous, a total stranger to fear, of whom Lord Curzon says:

Beauty and the female sex also lent their consecration to the new creed, and the heroism of the lovely but ill-fated poetess of Kazvin, Zerin Taj[X] (Crown of Gold), or Kurrat-el-Ain (Solace of the Eyes), who, throwing off the veil, carried the missionary torch far and wide, is one of the most affecting episodes in modern history.[2]

And here is the tribute of another eminent Englishman, Edward Granville Browne, to this unique woman:

The appearance of such a woman as Ḳurratu'l-`Ayn is in any country and any age a rare phenomenon, but in such a country as Persia it is a prodigy—nay, almost a miracle. Alike in virtue of her marvellous beauty, her rare intellectual gifts, her fervid eloquence, her fearless devotion and her glorious martyrdom, she stands forth incomparable and immortal amidst her countrywomen. Had the Bábí religion no other claim to greatness, this were sufficient—that it produced a heroine like Ḳurratu'l-`Ayn.[3]

Qurratu'l-`Ayn belonged to a family famed for its learning. Her father, Ḥájí Mullá Ṣáliḥ, and her uncle, Ḥájí Mullá Muḥammad-Taqí,[4] were both leading figures among the clergy. But they were far too orthodox for this great woman's spiritual susceptibilities, although a younger uncle, Ḥájí Mullá `Alí, had become a supporter of the Shaykhí school.[Y] Qurratu'l-`Ayn was married to the son of Ḥájí Mullá Muḥammad-Taqí—her cousin, Mullá Muḥammad. They had children, but their marriage was disastrous. Mullá Muḥammad was even more fanatical and narrow-minded than his father and a wide gulf yawned between husband and wife.

Qurratu'l-`Ayn had another cousin, Mullá Javád, who had accepted the rational views of Shaykh Aḥmad and Siyyid Káẓim. Having learned in this cousin's library of the teaching of the illustrious sage of Karbilá who had gone far beyond the limits of orthodoxy, Qurratu'l-`Ayn corresponded with Siyyid Káẓim and gave him her allegiance. From him she received the name Qurratu'l-`Ayn. In vain did her elders attempt to dampen her enthusiasm. No persuasion or threat could stop the tide of her newly-found devotion. And when she decided to leave her home and her family and join the circle of Siyyid Káẓim, nothing could thwart her purpose. To appreciate the boldness and gravity of her action, one must realize how sheltered were the Eastern women of those days; her behaviour could be seen only as scandalous and almost unprecedented. However, she reached Karbilá too late. Ten days prior to her arrival Siyyid Káẓim had passed away. Qurratu'l-`Ayn remained in Karbilá. She was convinced that before long the One promised to them would appear. Now, many of the disciples of Siyyid Káẓim were setting out on their search. One of them was Qurratu'l-`Ayn's brother-in-law, the husband of her younger sister Marḍíyyih. She gave this relative, Mírzá Muḥammad-`Alí, a sealed letter and told him to deliver it to the One whom they expected and sought. A verbal message in verse was added to the letter: 'Say to Him, from me,' she said,

'The effulgence of thy face flashed forth and
the rays of thy visage arose on high;
Then speak the word, "Am I not your
Lord?" and "Thou art, Thou art!"
we will all reply.'[5]

When Mírzá Muḥammad-`Alí reached the presence of the Báb, he gave Him the letter and the message; and the Báb numbered her among the Letters of the Living. Thus it was that this fearless, eloquent pioneer of woman's emancipation joined the ranks of the first disciples of the Báb. Qurratu'l-`Ayn is better known as Ṭáhirih—the Pure One—a designation by which she will ever be remembered.[Z]

The Letters of the Living, the eighteen disciples who found the Báb 'independently and of their own accord', were:

Mullá Muḥammad-`Alíy-i-Bárfurúshí, entitled Quddús.

Mullá Ḥusayn-i-Bushrú'í, entitled Bábu'l-Báb.

Mírzá Muḥammad-Ḥasan-i-Bushrú'í, brother of Mullá Ḥusayn.

Mírzá Muḥammad-Báqir, nephew of Mullá Ḥusayn.

Mírzá Muḥammad-`Alíy-i-Qazvíní, brother-in-law of Ṭáhirih.

Mullá Aḥmad-i-Ibdál-i-Marághi'í.

Mullá Yúsuf-i-Ardibílí.

Mullá Jalíl-i-Urúmí.

Mullá Maḥmúd-i-Khu'í.

These nine were martyrs who fell during 'the Mázindarán upheaval' (see p. [175]).

Mullá `Alíy-i-Basṭámí, the first martyr of the Bábí Dispensation. He was put to death somewhere in `Iráq.

Qurratu'l-`Ayn, Ṭáhirih, whose original name was Umm-Salamih.

Siyyid Ḥusayn-i-Yazdí, known as Kátib (the Amanuensis), and also `Azíz.
Ṭáhirih and Siyyid Ḥusayn-i-Yazdí suffered martyrdom in the holocaust of August 1852, subsequent to the attempt made by two Bábís on the life of Náṣiri'd-Dín Sháh.

Shaykh Sa`íd-i-Hindí (the Indian). He met his death somewhere in India, though no one knows how and where.

Mullá Báqir-i-Tabrízí. He lived on to the advent of Bahá'u'lláh and believed in Him.

Mírzá Hádíy-i-Qazvíní, son of Ḥájí Mírzá `Abdu'l-Vahháb, and brother of Mírzá Muḥammad-`Alí (the fifth name above). Mírzá Hádí remained apart from other Bábís and taught the Faith with caution.

Mírzá Muḥammad Rawḍih-Khán-i-Yazdí. He too remained apart from other Bábís and was generally known as a Shaykhí. But he never renounced his faith and taught it whenever he could.

Mullá Khudá-Bakhsh-i-Qúchání, later known as Mullá `Alíy-i-Rází. He died a natural death, but his son Mashíyyatu'lláh later met with martyrdom in his youth.

Mullá Ḥasan-i-Bajistání. Doubts assailed him after the martyrdom of the Báb, because he did not consider himself worthy of the station given to him. Forced to leave his home, he went to `Iráq and attained the presence of Bahá'u'lláh.

Mullá `Alíy-i-Basṭámí was given the mission to return to `Iráq and inform the people in that heartland of the Shí`ah persuasion that the Báb had appeared, but not to divulge, as yet, any particulars that might reveal His identity. To him the Báb said:

Your faith must be immovable as the rock, must weather every storm and survive every calamity. Suffer not the denunciations of the foolish and the calumnies of the clergy to afflict you, or to turn you from your purpose. For you are called to partake of the celestial banquet prepared for you in the immortal Realm. You are the first to leave the House of God, and to suffer for His sake. If you be slain in His path, remember that great will be your reward, and goodly the gift which will be bestowed upon you.

Mullá `Alí was soon on his way to `Iráq. Then the Báb called together the other sixteen disciples and spoke to them, adjuring them to go out into the world and serve their God in the light of the faith given to them:

O My beloved friends! You are the bearers of the name of God in this Day. You have been chosen as the repositories of His mystery. It behoves each one of you to manifest the attributes of God, and to exemplify by your deeds and words the signs of His righteousness, His power and glory. The very members of your body must bear witness to the loftiness of your purpose, the integrity of your life, the reality of your faith, and the exalted character of your devotion. For verily I say, this is the Day spoken of by God in His Book: 'On that day will We set a seal upon their mouths; yet shall their hands speak unto Us, and their feet shall bear witness to that which they shall have done.'[AA] Ponder the words of Jesus addressed to His disciples, as He sent them forth to propagate the Cause of God. In words such as these, He bade them arise and fulfil their mission: 'Ye are even as the fire which in the darkness of the night has been kindled upon the mountain-top. Let your light shine before the eyes of men. Such must be the purity of your character and the degree of your renunciation, that the people of the earth may through you recognise and be drawn closer to the heavenly Father who is the Source of purity and grace. For none has seen the Father who is in heaven. You who are His spiritual children must by your deeds exemplify His virtues, and witness to His glory. You are the salt of the earth, but if the salt have lost its savour, wherewith shall it be salted? Such must be the degree of your detachment, that into whatever city you enter to proclaim and teach the Cause of God, you should in no wise expect either meat or reward from its people. Nay, when you depart out of that city, you should shake the dust from off your feet. As you have entered it pure and undefiled, so must you depart from that city. For verily I say, the heavenly Father is ever with you and keeps watch over you. If you be faithful to Him, He will assuredly deliver into your hands all the treasures of the earth, and will exalt you above all the rulers and kings of the world.' O My Letters! Verily I say, immensely exalted is this Day above the days of the Apostles of old. Nay, immeasurable is the difference! You are the witnesses of the Dawn of the promised Day of God. You are the partakers of the mystic chalice of His Revelation. Gird up the loins of endeavour, and be mindful of the words of God as revealed in His Book: 'Lo, the Lord thy God is come, and with Him is the company of His angels arrayed before Him!'[AB] Purge your hearts of worldly desires, and let angelic virtues be your adorning. Strive that by your deeds you may bear witness to the truth of these words of God, and beware lest, by 'turning back',[AC] He may 'change you for another people',[AC] who 'shall not be your like',[AD] and who shall take from you the Kingdom of God. The days when idle worship was deemed sufficient are ended. The time is come when naught but the purest motive, supported by deeds of stainless purity, can ascend to the throne of the Most High and be acceptable unto Him. 'The good word riseth up unto Him, and the righteous deed will cause it to be exalted before Him.'[AD] You are the lowly, of whom God has thus spoken in His Book: 'And We desire to show favour to those who were brought low in the land, and to make them spiritual leaders among men, and to make them Our heirs.'[AE] You have been called to this station; you will attain to it, only if you arise to trample beneath your feet every earthly desire, and endeavour to become those honoured servants of His who speak not till He hath spoken, and who do His bidding'. You are the first Letters that have been generated from the Primal Point [the Báb], the first Springs that have welled out from the Source of this Revelation. Beseech the Lord your God to grant that no earthly entanglements, no worldly affections, no ephemeral pursuits, may tarnish the purity, or embitter the sweetness, of that grace which flows through you. I am preparing you for the advent of a mighty Day. Exert your utmost endeavour that, in the world to come, I, who am now instructing you, may, before the mercy-seat of God, rejoice in your deeds and glory in your achievements. The secret of the Day that is to come is now concealed. It can neither be divulged nor estimated. The newly born babe of that Day excels the wisest and most venerable men of this time, and the lowliest and most unlearned of that period shall surpass in understanding the most erudite and accomplished divines of this age. Scatter throughout the length and breadth of this land, and, with steadfast feet and sanctified hearts, prepare the way for His coming. Heed not your weaknesses and frailty; fix your gaze upon the invincible power of the Lord, your God, the Almighty. Has He not, in past days, caused Abraham, in spite of His seeming helplessness, to triumph over the forces of Nimrod? Has He not enabled Moses, whose staff was His only companion, to vanquish Pharaoh and his hosts? Has He not established the ascendancy of Jesus, poor and lowly as He was in the eyes of men, over the combined forces of the Jewish people? Has He not subjected the barbarous and militant tribes of Arabia to the holy and transforming discipline of Muḥammad, His Prophet? Arise in His name, put your trust wholly in Him, and be assured of ultimate victory.

CHAPTER 2
HE WHOM THEY SOUGHT

The gentle spirit of the Bāb is surely high up in the cycles of eternity. Who can fail, as Prof. Browne says, to be attracted by him?

—T. K. Cheyne, D.Litt., D.D.

Siyyid (or Mírzá) `Alí-Muḥammad, known to history as the Báb, was the son of Siyyid (or Mír) Muḥammad-Riḍá, a mercer of Shíráz.[1]He was born on October 20th 1819 (Muḥarram 1st, 1235 A.H.). Through both His father and His mother He was descended from Imám Ḥusayn,[AF] the third Imám. Thus He stood in direct line of descent from the Prophet Muḥammad. According to Mírzá Abu'l-Faḍl-i-Gulpáygání, Siyyid Muḥammad-Riḍá, the Báb's father, died when his only child was an infant, unweaned. Then the care of the child devolved upon a maternal uncle, Ḥájí Mírzá Siyyid `Alí. He was the only relative of the Báb to espouse His Cause openly during His lifetime and, as will be seen, to accept martyrdom for His sake. But according to a manuscript history of the Bábí-Bahá'í Faith in Shíráz by Ḥájí Mírzá Ḥabíbu'lláh-i-Afnán,[AG] Siyyid Muḥammad-Riḍá passed away when his son was nine years old, and `Abdu'l-Bahá appears to confirm this account.[AH]

Two of Siyyid Muḥammad-Riḍa's paternal cousins rose to eminence in the ranks of the Shí`ah divines, and both bore allegiance, in strict secrecy, to their kinsman when His claim to be 'the Qá'im of the House of Muḥammad' became publicly known. Of the two, the more famed and distinguished was Ḥájí Mírzá Muḥammad-Ḥasan (1815-95), known as Mírzáy-i-Shírází, who, like all the leading Shí`ah divines, resided in `Iráq. He was the most influential ecclesiastic of his time, powerful enough to wreck the Tobacco Régie, the monopoly concession which Náṣiri'd-Dín Sháh (reigned 1848-96) gave to Major Gerald F. Talbot, a British citizen, in the summer of 1889.[2] Mírzáy-i-Shírází put the use of tobacco under an interdict and the people of Írán, even the women in the Sháh's harem, ceased to use it. Náṣiri'd-Dín Sháh was forced early in 1892 to cancel the concession and pay the Tobacco Corporation an indemnity of £500,000. The father of Mírzáy-i-Shírází, named Mírzá Maḥmúd, was a noted calligraphist, and was uncle to the father of the Báb.

The other celebrated ecclesiastic, cousin to Siyyid Muḥammad-Riḍá, was Ḥájí Siyyid Javád, the Imám-Jum`ih[AI] of Kirmán. It was Quddús who gave this dignitary the news of the advent of the Báb. Ḥájí Siyyid Javád extended his protection to Quddús, despite the clamour of his adversaries.

The mother of the Báb was Fáṭimih-Bagum. She was the daughter of Mírzá Muḥammad-Ḥusayn, a merchant of Shíráz, and had three brothers. Of these, Ḥájí Mírzá Siyyid `Alí became the guardian of the Báb, while Ḥájí Mírzá Siyyid Muḥammad and Ḥájí Mírzá Ḥasan-`Alí, although not enlisted in the ranks of the followers of their illustrious Nephew, feature in His story.

Every account that we have of Siyyid `Alí-Muḥammad's childhood indicates that He was not an ordinary child. When He was sent to school, He so surprised the schoolmaster, Shaykh `Ábid, with His wisdom and intelligence that the bewildered man took the child back to His uncle, and said that he had nothing to teach this gifted pupil: 'He, verily, stands in no need of teachers such as I.' The uncle had already noticed the remarkable qualities of his ward, and it is recorded that on this occasion he was very stern with Him: 'Have You forgotten my instructions? Have I not already admonished You to follow the example of Your fellow-pupils, to observe silence, and to listen attentively to every word spoken by Your teacher?' It was totally alien to the nature of that gentle child to disregard the wishes of His guardian. He returned to school and conducted Himself on the pattern of other children. Nothing, however, could restrain the superior mind and intelligence possessed by that exceptional boy. As time went on, the schoolmaster became convinced that he could not help his student; in the role of instructor he felt as the instructed.

It should also be said that schools such as that attended by Siyyid `Alí-Muḥammad, which were common in those days, were one-man affairs and matters taught were elementary, although pupils were trained to read the Qur'án, even if they could not possibly understand the meaning of the sacred text which is of course in Arabic. The Báb did not go beyond this school nor the tuition of Shaykh `Ábid. Thus His schooling was meagre.

The Báb was only five years old when He was sent to receive tuition from Shaykh `Ábid. Ḥájí Mírzá Ḥabíbu'lláh's narrative contains an account of His first day at school, related by Áqá Muḥammad-Ibráhím-i-Ismá`íl Bag, a well-known merchant of Shíráz, who was a fellow-scholar at the age of twelve. The Báb had taken a seat, with great courtesy, in between this boy and another pupil who was also much older than Himself. His head was bowed over the primer put in front of Him, the first lines of which He had been taught to repeat. But He would not utter a word. When asked why He did not read aloud as other boys were doing He made no reply. Just then two boys, sitting near them, were heard to recite a couplet from Ḥáfiẓ, which runs thus:

From the pinnacles of Heaven they call out unto thee;
I know not what hath thee here entrapped.[3]

'That is your answer,' said the Báb, turning to Áqá Muḥammad-Ibráhím.

Ḥájí Mírzá Ḥabíbu'lláh also tells us that, apart from teaching boys, Shaykh `Ábid had a regular class for theological students. On one occasion some of these students posed a question which after a long period of discussion remained unresolved. Shaykh `Ábid told them that he would consult some authoritative works that same night and on the morrow present them with the solution. Just then the Báb, who had been listening, spoke and with sound reasoning propounded the answer which they sought. They were wonder-struck, for they had no recollection of discussing that particular subject within earshot of the Báb, who might then have looked up references in books and memorized them to repeat parrot-wise. Shaykh `Ábid asked Him where He had gained that knowledge. The boy replied smilingly with a couplet from Ḥáfiẓ:

Should the grace of the Holy Spirit once again deign to assist,
Others will also do what Christ could perform.[3]

Not only did the mental faculties of the Báb astound the schoolmaster; the nobility of His character impressed him even more. Indeed all those who were close or near to His person could not but yield to the charm of His being. Years later, when the Báb had raised the call of a new theophany, the schoolmaster casting his mind over the past told Ḥájí Siyyid Javád-i-Karbilá'í, a learned scion of a celebrated priestly family (the Baḥru'l-`Ulúm[AJ]), that Siyyid `Alí-Muḥammad was always dignified and serene, that He was very handsome and cared little for the pastimes of other boys. Some mornings, the schoolmaster recalled, He was late coming to school and when asked the reason He remained silent. On occasions Shaykh `Ábid sent other pupils to call at His home and ask Him to come to school. They would return to say that they had found Him at His devotions. One day, when He had come late to school and was questioned by Shaykh `Ábid, the Báb said quietly that He had been in the house of His 'Grandfather'. Thus do the Siyyids refer to their ancestor the Prophet Muḥammad. To the schoolmaster's remonstrances that He was only a child of ten from whom such rigorous attention to devotions was not demanded, He replied quietly again, 'I wish to be like My Grandfather'. At that time, Shaykh `Ábid said, he had taken the words of Siyyid `Alí-Muḥammad as childish naïveté.[4]

A certain book-binder of Shíráz named Siyyid Muḥammad, whose house neighboured that of the Báb's, but who in later years removed to Saráy-i-Amír[AK] in Ṭihrán to ply his trade, had heard Shaykh `Ábid relate that it was customary, when the season was clement, for the boys to invite their teacher and their fellow-pupils on Fridays (the day of rest) to an outing in one of the numerous gardens which bordered the city of Shíráz. At times they would find that the Báb had betaken Himself to a shaded, secluded spot in a corner of the orchard to pray and meditate.

Ḥájí Siyyid Javád-i-Karbilá'í had himself encountered the Báb in the years of His childhood. He was normally a resident of Karbilá and had attended regularly the discourses of Siyyid Káẓim-i-Rashtí, eventually becoming one of his ardent disciples. But he was also a man of travel who embarked now and then on long journeys. Twice he went on pilgrimage to Mecca and spent some time there teaching and discoursing. He visited India and stayed in Bombay for a while. One of his journeys took him to Shíráz, at a time when the Báb was about nine years old. Being well acquainted with Ḥájí Siyyid Muḥammad (one of the Báb's maternal uncles), Ḥájí Siyyid Javád visited him occasionally. Decades later he recalled that on one of these visits he could hear the intonations of a melodious, enraptured voice, coming from the direction of the alcove reserved for devotions. Before long a boy stepped out of the recess and Ḥájí Mírzá Siyyid Muḥammad introduced Him as his nephew who was orphaned. Another visit coincided with the Báb's return from school. Ḥájí Siyyid Javád noticed that He held a batch of papers and asked what they were. Very courteously the boy replied that they were His calligraphic exercises. When Ḥájí Siyyid Javád inspected them he marvelled at their excellence.

On yet another and later occasion, when the Báb was for a time engaged in trading in the port of Búshihr, Ḥájí Siyyid Javád spent six months in that town, living in the same inn as the Báb. Thus they often met. Still later, in Karbilá, Ḥájí Siyyid Javád again met the Báb, who by then was in His early twenties.

When Mullá `Alíy-i-Basṭámí reached `Iráq with the tidings of the advent of the Báb, the news spread rapidly among the divines and the students of theology. Ḥájí Siyyid Javád was one of those particularly attracted, and he often urged Mullá `Alí to divulge the name of Him who had put forth such a tremendous claim. But the Báb had emphatically forbidden Mullá `Alí to mention His name or give any clue to His identity. To all insistent requests Mullá `Alí merely said that before long His identity would be revealed to them. No one, according to the testimony of Ḥájí Siyyid Javád, suspected that the Báb could be the young merchant of Shíráz who had only recently lived among them. Most of the Shaykhís believed that the Báb must be one of the close disciples of Siyyid Káẓim.

Then it occurred to Ḥájí Siyyid Javád to invite Mullá `Alí to his own home and question him more closely. Seated on the roof of the house, in the neighbourhood of the Shrine of Imám Ḥusayn, the two of them conversed at length about the 'Great Event', but no matter how hard he tried, Ḥájí Siyyid Javád could not induce his guest to disclose the secret which he had been bidden to withhold. So frustrated did he feel that, on his own admission, Ḥájí Siyyid Javád gripped the arms of Mullá `Alí, pushed him hard against the wall and exclaimed: 'What am I to do with you, Mullá `Alí! Kill you? Won't you say who that wondrous Being is? Won't you relieve us of this misery?' Gasping for breath, Mullá `Alí replied: 'Siyyid Javád! It is forbidden. You yourself are a man of learning. You should know better. It is forbidden.' And then quite unexpectedly and without knowing why, Mullá `Alí added that the Báb had specially mentioned that all His letters extant in `Iráq, whoever the recipient might have been, ought to be sent to Shíráz. No sooner had Mullá `Alí spoken than Ḥájí Siyyid Javád had, in a flash, a mental picture of Siyyid `Alí-Muḥammad, whom he had known and admired since His childhood. He ran down the stairs to the room where he kept his papers, gathered up the letters he had received from Siyyid `Alí-Muḥammad and hurried back to the roof. The moment Mullá `Alí caught sight of the seal on those letters he burst into tears, and so did Ḥájí Siyyid Javád. They wept for joy, and between his sobs Mullá `Alí kept repeating: `Áqá Siyyid Javád! Áqá Siyyid Javád! I did not mention any name to you. It is forbidden to mention His blessed name. Don't mention His name to anyone.'[5]

Thus did Ḥájí Siyyid Javád-i-Karbilá'í find his new Faith, to which he remained steadfastly loyal throughout his long life. We shall hear later a good deal more of this remarkable man.

Siyyid `Alí-Muḥammad had some six to seven years of schooling with Shaykh `Ábid. In all probability He left the school at the Qahviy-i-Awlíyá' before He was thirteen. According to Ḥájí Mírzá Ḥabíbu'lláh's narrative, He joined Ḥájí Mírzá Siyyid `Alí, His uncle-guardian, in business when He was fifteen years old,[AL] and shortly afterwards moved to Búshihr. Pages of commercial accounts which He kept put it beyond doubt that the Báb left Shíráz for Búshihr when He was nearly sixteen. There can be little doubt that at an early age the Báb took over the complete management of the trading-house in Búshihr. His scrupulous attention to detail and His undeviating fairness in transactions became widely known in the region. A man who had consigned to Him some goods to sell was astonished to find, when he received his money, that it was more than could be obtained at current prices. He wanted to return some of it. The Báb told him that it was only fair and just that he should be given that particular sum, because his goods would have fetched exactly that amount had they been offered for sale when the market was at its best.

A.-L.-M. Nicolas maintains that the Báb was also engaged in writing and composing, during this period of His sojourn in Búshihr. He mentions a treatise, the Risáliy-i-Fiqhíyyih, as having come from the pen of the Báb during those years.[6] His statement is corroborated by Ḥájí Mírzá Ḥabíbu'lláh's narrative:

One day in Egypt during the time when Mírzá Abu'l-Faḍl was occupied with writing his book, the Fará'id, we came to talk about the early years of the Báb, prior to His declaration, and the period when He was engaged in trading. Mírzá Abu'l-Faḍl related the following to me: 'I myself heard the late Ḥájí Siyyid Javád-i-Karbilá'í say that when the Báb was pursuing the career of a merchant in Búshihr, he ... because of his friendship with the uncles of the Báb used to stay with them whenever he visited either Shíráz or Búshihr. One day Ḥájí Mírzá Siyyid Muḥammad came to him with a request. "Give some good counsel to my nephew ... tell Him not to write certain things which can only arouse the jealousy of some people: these people cannot bear to see a young merchant of little schooling show such erudition, they feel envious." Ḥájí Mírzá Siyyid Muḥammad had been very insistent that Ḥájí Siyyid Javád should counsel the Báb to desist from writing. Ḥájí Siyyid Javád had however replied with these lines of verse: "The fair of face cannot put up with the veil; Shut him in, and out of the window will he show his visage," and had added: "We are earth-bound and He is celestial. Our counsel is of no use to Him."'

Mullá Muḥammad-i-Zarandí, Nabíl-i-A`ẓam, lays particular stress on the Báb's strict regard for His devotions on Fridays. Even the torrid conditions of Búshihr, he states, did not deter the Báb. Writers of such histories as the Násikhu't-Taváríkh,[7] hostile to the Báb, have alleged that long exposure to the severe heat of the sun in that seaport, while engaged in prayers, affected His mind. They have gone on to assert that it was this derangement of mind which led Him to make extravagant claims. But Ḥájí Mírzá Jání of Káshán refutes any suggestion that the Báb deliberately practised austerities, or that He found Himself a 'murshid' (spiritual guide) to direct Him along such lines.

Unfortunately records of the years that the Báb spent in Búshihr are scant. We cannot be certain as to the exact dates when He took over the complete management of the trading-house and when He retired. Ḥájí Mu`ínu's-Salṭanih of Tabríz states in his chronicle that the Báb assumed direct responsibility at the age of twenty. If that statement be correct, the period during which He acted on His own was quite brief. According to Mírzá Abu'l-Faḍl of Gulpáygán, He journeyed to the holy cities of `Iráq in the spring of 1841, stayed in `Iráq for nearly seven months and returned to His 'native province of Fárs' in the autumn of that year. Ḥájí Mírzá Ḥabíbu'lláh states that the Báb's sojourn in Búshihr lasted six years. According to him, when the Báb decided to go on pilgrimage to the holy cities of `Iráq, He wrote to His uncles in Shíráz asking them to come and take over the business from Him. His uncles, however, procrastinated, whereupon the Báb settled all the outstanding matters in Búshihr Himself, brought His books up to date, locked and sealed the door of the office and left the keys with the gatekeeper of the caravanserai, to be handed over to any one of His uncles. He informed His uncles of what He had done and explained that since they had not heeded His repeated pleas He had no other alternative, determined as He was to go on pilgrimage to the holy cities.[AM] Ḥájí Mírzá Siyyid Muḥammad was greatly perturbed lest their credit be damaged and their clients suffer serious loss. But Ḥájí Mírzá Siyyid `Alí assured him that their nephew would never do anything to compromise them and that all accounts would be found in perfect order. Ḥájí Mírzá Siyyid Muḥammad hurried to Búshihr where a close inspection of the books satisfied him that nothing had been left to chance.

While in Karbilá the Báb visited Siyyid Káẓim-i-Rashtí and attended his discourses. But these occasional visits did not and could not make Him a pupil or disciple of Siyyid Káẓim. His adversaries have alleged that He sat at the feet of Siyyid Káẓim for months on end to learn from him. But accounts that we have from close associates of Siyyid Káẓim all indicate that the Shaykhí leader welcomed and received Siyyid `Alí-Muḥammad, on every occasion, with great reverence. Here is a long account by Shaykh Ḥasan-i-Zunúzí:

My days were spent in the service of Siyyid Káẓim, to whom I was greatly attached. One day, at the hour of dawn, I was suddenly awakened by Mullá Naw-rúz, one of his intimate attendants, who, in great excitement, bade me arise and follow him. We went to the house of Siyyid Káẓim, where we found him fully dressed, wearing his `abá, and ready to leave his home. He asked me to accompany him. 'A highly esteemed and distinguished Person,' he said, 'has arrived. I feel it incumbent upon us both to visit Him.' The morning light had just broken when I found myself walking with him through the streets of Karbilá. We soon reached a house, at the door of which stood a Youth, as if expectant to receive us. He wore a green turban, and His countenance revealed an expression of humility and kindliness which I can never describe. He quietly approached us, extended His arms towards Siyyid Káẓim, and lovingly embraced him. His affability and loving-kindness singularly contrasted with the sense of profound reverence that characterised the attitude of Siyyid Káẓim towards Him. Speechless and with bowed head, he received the many expressions of affection and esteem with which that Youth greeted him. We were soon led by Him to the upper floor of that house, and entered a chamber bedecked with flowers and redolent of the loveliest perfume. He bade us be seated. We knew not, however, what seats we actually occupied, so overpowering was the sense of delight which seized us. We observed a silver cup which had been placed in the centre of the room, which our youthful Host, soon after we were seated, filled to overflowing, and handed to Siyyid Káẓim, saying: 'A drink of a pure beverage shall their Lord give them.'[AN] Siyyid Káẓim held the cup with both hands and quaffed it. A feeling of reverent joy filled his being, a feeling which he could not suppress. I too was presented with a cupful of that beverage, though no words were addressed to me. All that was spoken at that memorable gathering was the above-mentioned verse of the Qur'án. Soon after, the Host arose from His seat and, accompanying us to the threshold of the house, bade us farewell. I was mute with wonder, and knew not how to express the cordiality of His welcome, the dignity of His bearing, the charm of that face, and the delicious fragrance of that beverage. How great was my amazement when I saw my teacher quaff without the least hesitation that holy draught from a silver cup, the use of which, according to the precepts of Islám, is forbidden to the faithful. I could not explain the motive which could have induced the Siyyid to manifest such profound reverence in the presence of that Youth—a reverence which even the sight of the shrine of the Siyyidu'sh-Shuhadá'[AO] had failed to excite. Three days later, I saw that same Youth arrive and take His seat in the midst of the company of the assembled disciples of Siyyid Káẓim. He sat close to the threshold, and with the same modesty and dignity of bearing listened to the discourse of the Siyyid. As soon as his eyes fell upon that Youth, the Siyyid discontinued his address and held his peace. Whereupon one of his disciples begged him to resume the argument which he had left unfinished. 'What more shall I say?' replied Siyyid Káẓim, as he turned his face toward the Báb. 'Lo, the Truth is more manifest than the ray of light that has fallen upon that lap!' I immediately observed that the ray to which the Siyyid referred had fallen upon the lap of that same Youth whom we had recently visited. 'Why is it,' that questioner enquired, 'that you neither reveal His name nor identify His person?' To this the Siyyid replied by pointing with his finger to his own throat, implying that were he to divulge His name, they both would be put to death instantly. This added still further to my perplexity. I had already heard my teacher observe that so great is the perversity of this generation, that were he to point with his finger to the promised One and say: 'He indeed is the Beloved, the Desire of your hearts and mine,' they would still fail to recognise and acknowledge Him. I saw the Siyyid actually point out with his finger the ray of light that had fallen on that lap, and yet none among those who were present seemed to apprehend its meaning. I, for my part, was convinced that the Siyyid himself could never be the promised One, but that a mystery inscrutable to us all, lay concealed in that strange and attractive Youth. Several times I ventured to approach Siyyid Káẓim and seek from him an elucidation of this mystery. Every time I approached him, I was overcome by a sense of awe which his personality so powerfully inspired.[8]

Shaykh Ḥasan-i-Zunúzí has gone on to relate:

I often felt the urge to seek alone the presence of that Háshimite[AP] Youth and to endeavour to fathom His mystery. I watched Him several times as He stood in an attitude of prayer at the doorway of the shrine of the Imám Ḥusayn. So wrapt was He in His devotions that He seemed utterly oblivious of those around Him. Tears rained from His eyes, and from His lips fell words of glorification and praise of such power and beauty as even the noblest passages of our sacred Scriptures could not hope to surpass. The words 'O God, my God, my Beloved, my heart's Desire,' were uttered with a frequency and ardour that those of the visiting pilgrims who were near enough to hear Him instinctively interrupted the course of their devotions, and marvelled at the evidences of piety and veneration which that youthful countenance evinced. Like Him they were moved to tears, and from Him they learned the lesson of true adoration. Having completed His prayers, that Youth, without crossing the threshold of the shrine and without attempting to address any words to those around Him, would quietly return to His home. I felt the impulse to address Him, but every time I ventured an approach, a force that I could neither explain nor resist, detained me. My inquiries about Him elicited the information that He was a resident of Shíráz, that He was a merchant by profession, and did not belong to any of the ecclesiastical orders. I was, moreover, informed that He, and also His uncles and relatives, were among the lovers and admirers of Shaykh Aḥmad and Siyyid Káẓim. I learned that He had departed for Najaf on His way to Shiraz. That Youth had set my heart aflame. The memory of that vision haunted me. My soul was wedded to His till the day when the call of a Youth from Shíráz, proclaiming Himself to be the Báb, reached my ears. The thought instantly flashed through my mind that such a person could be none other than that selfsame Youth whom I had seen in Karbilá, the Youth of my heart's desire.[9]

According to Ḥájí Mírzá Ḥabíbu'lláh's narrative, as the sojourn of the Báb in the holy cities lengthened into months, His mother, anxious to have her only son back in Shíráz, asked her brother, Ḥájí Mírzá Siyyid `Alí, to go to `Iráq and persuade Him to return. He could not deny his sister's request, but when he reached `Iráq he found that his nephew, who had once been his ward, was unwilling to leave the holy cities. Thereupon he appealed to Ḥájí Siyyid Javád-i-Karbilá'í for help, who was at first reluctant to lend his support, not wishing to lose the company of the young Shírází Siyyid whom he had over the course of years so tremendously admired. However, when he learned that His mother was greatly concerned, he consented to intervene. At last the Báb complied with their request and agreed to return. After a few months in Shíráz He declared His intention of going once again to `Iráq. His mother, alarmed and agitated by this decision, once more sought the aid of her brother. Their efforts resulted in the marriage of the Báb to Khadíjih-Bagum, daughter of Ḥájí Mírzá `Alí,[10] the paternal uncle of His mother. The marriage took place in August 1842. Khadíjih-Bagum had two brothers: Ḥájí Mírzá Abu'l-Qásim and Ḥájí Mírzá Siyyid Ḥasan, and both of them, though not counted among His followers in His lifetime, have a place in the story of the Báb. The descendants of these two brothers-in-law of the Báb, and the descendants of His maternal uncles, are known as the Afnán (the Twigs).

A son was born to Siyyid `Alí-Muḥammad and Khadíjih-Bagum in the year 1843, whom they named Aḥmad, but he did not live long. Ḥájí Mírzá Ḥabíbu'lláh states that the child was still-born. The Báb notes the birth of Aḥmad in the Qayyúmu'l-Asmá', His commentary on the Súrih of Yúsuf (Joseph). Speaking of His wedding with His well-beloved, who was herself descended from the Well-Beloved (Muḥammad is known as Ḥabíbu'lláh—the Well-Beloved of God), and relating how He had called upon the angels of Heaven and the cohorts of Paradise to witness that wedding, the Báb then addresses His wife:

O well-beloved! Value highly the grace of Dhikr [the Bab],[11] the Greatest, for it comes from God, the Loved One. Thou shalt not be a woman, like other women, if thou obeyest God in the Cause of Truth ... and take pride in being the consort of the Well-Beloved, who is loved by God the Greatest. Sufficient unto thee is this glory which cometh unto thee from God, the All-Wise, the All-Praised. Be patient in all that God hath ordained concerning the Báb and His Family. Verily, thy son, Aḥmad, is with Fáṭimih,[AQ] the Sublime, in the sanctified Paradise. [12]

And there is this further reference to Ahmad in the Qayyúmu'l-Asmá':

All praise be to God Who bestowed upon the Solace of the Eyes,[AR] in His youth, Aḥmad. We did verily raise him up unto God.... O Solace of the Eyes! Be patient in what thy God hath ordained for thee. Verily He doeth whatsoever He willeth. He is the All-Wise in the exercise of His justice. He is thy Lord, the Ancient of Days, and praised be He in whatever He ordereth.[12]

CHAPTER 3
ṬIHRÁN

Rejoice with great joy, for God hath made thee 'the Day-Spring of His light', inasmuch as within thee was born the Manifestation of His Glory. Be thou glad for this name that hath been conferred upon thee—a name through which the Day-Star of grace hath shed its splendour, through which both earth and heaven have been illumined.

—Bahá'u'lláh, addressing the city of Ṭihrán

... We stand, life in hand, wholly resigned to His will; that perchance, through God's loving kindness and His grace, this revealed and manifest Letter may lay down His life as a sacrifice in the path of the Primal Point,[AS] the most exalted Word.

—Bahá'u'lláh, from the Kitáb-i-Íqán

Mullá Ḥusayn was sorely disappointed when he realized that he was not to be the companion of the Báb, on His pilgrimage to Mecca. But for the man who was the first to find Him and believe in Him the Báb had marked out a task infinitely glorious. Mullá Ḥusayn was to go from Shíráz to Ṭihrán, where the fulfilment of that task awaited him. He had travelled to Shíráz on a quest. There he had reached its end, had found the Qá'im of the House of Muḥammad. Now he was to undertake another quest, and he was not entirely aware of the consequences that would attend its success. To him the Báb said:

In this pilgrimage upon which We are soon to embark, We have chosen Quddús as Our companion. We have left you behind to face the onslaught of a fierce and relentless enemy. Rest assured, however, that a bounty unspeakably glorious shall be conferred upon you. Follow the course of your journey towards the north, and visit on your way Iṣfahán, Káshán, Qum, and Ṭihrán. Beseech almighty Providence that He may graciously enable you to attain, in that capital, the seat of true sovereignty, and to enter the mansion of the Beloved. A secret lies hidden in that city. When made manifest, it shall turn the earth into paradise. My hope is that you may partake of its grace and recognise its splendour. From Ṭihrán proceed to Khurásán, and there proclaim anew the Call. From thence return to Najaf and Karbilá and there await the summons of your Lord. Be assured that the high mission for which you have been created will, in its entirety, be accomplished by you. Until you have consummated your work, if all the darts of an unbelieving world be directed against you, they will be powerless to hurt a single hair of your head.[1]

When the time came for Mullá Ḥusayn to leave Shíráz, the Báb told him:

Grieve not that you have not been chosen to accompany Me on My pilgrimage to Ḥijáz. I shall, instead, direct your steps to that city which enshrines a Mystery of such transcendent holiness as neither Ḥijáz nor Shíráz can hope to rival. My hope is that you may, by the aid of God, be enabled to remove the veils from the eyes of the wayward and to cleanse the minds of the malevolent. Visit, on your way, Iṣfahán, Káshán, Ṭihrán, and Khurásán. Proceed thence to `Iráq, and there await the summons of your Lord, who will keep watch over you and will direct you to whatsoever is His will and desire. As to Myself, I shall, accompanied by Quddús and My Ethiopian servant,[AT] proceed on My pilgrimage to Ḥijáz. I shall join the company of the pilgrims of Fárs, who will shortly be sailing for that land. I shall visit Mecca and Medina, and there fulfil the mission[AU] with which God has entrusted Me. God willing, I shall return hither by the way of Kúfih, in which place I hope to meet you. If it be decreed otherwise, I shall ask you to join Me in Shíráz. The hosts of the invisible Kingdom, be assured, will sustain and reinforce your efforts. The essence of power is now dwelling in you, and the company of His chosen angels revolves around you. His almighty arms will surround you, and His unfailing Spirit will ever continue to guide your steps. He that loves you, loves God; and whoever opposes you, has opposed God. Whoso befriends you, him will God befriend; and whoso rejects you, him will God reject.[2]

Mullá Ḥusayn was known in Iṣfahán, for there he had obtained testimonials from the great mujtahid, Ḥájí Siyyid Muḥammad-Báqir, in support of Siyyid Káẓim-i-Rashtí. That eminent divine was now dead, but his son, Ḥájí Siyyid Asadu'lláh, walking in the footsteps of his illustrious father, refused to associate himself with the adversaries of Mullá Ḥusayn. Another noted divine, Ḥájí Muḥammad-Ibráhím-i-Kalbásí, did likewise, and sternly admonished those who opposed Mullá Ḥusayn to cease their clamouring and investigate dispassionately whatever he was advocating. The Governor, Manúchihr Khán, the Mu`tamidu'd-Dawlih, similarly declined to heed their strictures.

The first person in Iṣfahán to embrace the new Faith was a youth, a sifter of wheat. The Báb immortalizes his memory in the Persian Bayán:[3]

Iṣfahán, that outstanding city, is distinguished by the religious fervour of its shi`ah inhabitants, by the learning of its divines, and by the keen expectation, shared by high and low alike, of the imminent coming of the Ṣáḥibu'z-Zamán.[AV] In every quarter of that city, religious institutions have been established. And yet, when the Messenger of God had been made manifest, they who claimed to be the repositories of learning and the expounders of the mysteries of the Faith of God rejected His Message. Of all the inhabitants of that seat of learning, only one person, a sifter of wheat, was found to recognise the Truth, and was invested with the robe of Divine virtue![4]

Others eventually followed the example of that youth,[AW] among them Mírzá Muḥammad `Alíy-i-Nahrí and his brother, Mírzá Hádí, who were Siyyids and highly respected. Mullá Ṣádiq-i-Muqaddas-i-Khurásání was another convert. Siyyid Káẓim had told Mullá Ṣádiq to establish his residence in Iṣfahán and pave the way for the coming of the Qá'im. That man of iron courage (whom we shall encounter again in the course of this story) met Mullá Ḥusayn in the home of Mírzá Muḥammad-`Alíy-i-Nahrí. Mullá Ṣádiq himself relates:

I asked Mullá Ḥusayn to divulge the name of Him who claimed to be the promised Manifestation. He replied: 'To enquire about that name and to divulge it are alike forbidden.' 'Would it, then, be possible,' I asked, 'for me, even as the Letters of the Living, to seek independently the grace of the All-Merciful and, through prayer, to discover His identity?' 'The door of His grace,' he replied, 'is never closed before the face of him who seeks to find Him.' I immediately retired from his presence, and requested his host to allow me the privacy of a room in his house where, alone and undisturbed, I could commune with God. In the midst of my contemplation, I suddenly remembered the face of a Youth whom I had often observed while in Karbilá, standing in an attitude of prayer, with His face bathed in tears, at the entrance of the shrine of the Imám Ḥusayn. That same countenance now reappeared before my eyes. In my vision I seemed to behold that same face, those same features, expressive of such joy as I could never describe. He smiled as He gazed at me. I went towards Him, ready to throw myself at His feet. I was bending towards the ground, when, lo! that radiant figure vanished from before me. Overpowered with joy and gladness, I ran out to meet Mullá Ḥusayn, who with transport received me and assured me that I had, at last, attained the object of my desire. He bade me, however, repress my feelings. 'Declare not your vision to anyone,' he urged me; 'the time for it has not yet arrived. You have reaped the fruit of your patient waiting in Iṣfahán. You should now proceed to Kirmán, and there acquaint Ḥájí Mírzá Karím Khán with this Message.[AX] From that place you should travel to Shíráz and endeavour to rouse the people of that city from their heedlessness. I hope to join you in Shíráz and share with you the blessings of a joyous reunion with our Beloved.'[5]

In Káshán, Mullá Ḥusayn found a responsive and eager heart in a well-known merchant of that town, named Ḥájí Mírzá Jání.[AY] He too features prominently in the story of the Báb. The next stage in Mullá Ḥusayn's journey was the city of Qum, where the shrine of Ma'ṣúmih, the sister of Imám Riḍá, the eighth Imám, is situated. He found no attentive ears in Qum. Then came the crucial stage of his journey, when he entered the capital city of Írán, for there lay the 'Mystery' which the Báb had mentioned.

In Ṭihrán Mullá Ḥusayn took a room in a theological institution called the madrisih (school) of Mírzá Ṣáliḥ, alternatively the madrisih of Páminár.[AZ] The director of the institution, Ḥájí Mírzá Muḥammad-i-Khurásání, was the leading Shaykhí in the capital. He not only refused to heed what Mullá Ḥusayn imparted, but severely remonstrated with him and accused him of having betrayed the trust of Siyyid Káẓim. Ḥájí Mírzá Muḥammad made it clear that in his view Mullá Ḥusayn's presence in Ṭihrán posed a threat to the Shaykhí community. Mullá Ḥusayn replied that he did not intend to stay long in Ṭihrán, nor had he done or said anything which detracted from the position of the founders of the Shaykhí school.

As far as he could, Mullá Ḥusayn kept away from the madrisih of Mírzá Ṣáliḥ. He went out early in the mornings and returned after sunset. Mullá Muḥammad-i-Mu`allim,[BA] a native of the district of Núr in Mázindarán, has described how Mullá Ḥusayn accomplished his mission:

I was in those days recognised as one of the favoured disciples of Ḥájí Mírzá Muḥammad, and lived in the same school in which he taught. My room adjoined his room, and we were closely associated together. On the day that he was engaged in discussion with Mullá Ḥusayn, I overheard their conversation from beginning to end, and was deeply affected by the ardour, the fluency, and learning of that youthful stranger. I was surprised at the evasive answers, the arrogance, and contemptuous behaviour of Ḥájí Mírzá Muḥammad. That day I felt strongly attracted by the charm of that youth, and deeply resented the unseemly conduct of my teacher towards him. I concealed my feelings, however, and pretended to ignore his discussions with Mullá Ḥusayn. I was seized with a passionate desire to meet the latter, and ventured, at the hour of midnight, to visit him. He did not expect me, but I knocked at his door, and found him awake seated beside his lamp. He received me affectionately, and spoke to me with extreme courtesy and tenderness. I unburdened my heart to him, and as I was addressing him, tears, which I could not repress, flowed from my eyes. 'I can now see,' he said, 'the reason why I have chosen to dwell in this place. Your teacher has contemptuously rejected this Message and despised its Author. My hope is that his pupil may, unlike his master, recognise its truth. What is your name, and which city is your home?' 'My name,' I replied, 'is Mullá Muḥammad, and my surname Mu`allim. My home is Núr, in the province of Mázindarán.' 'Tell me,' further inquired Mullá Ḥusayn, 'is there to-day among the family of the late Mírzá Buzurg-i-Núrí, who was so renowned for his character, his charm, and artistic and intellectual attainments, anyone who has proved himself capable of maintaining the high traditions of that illustrious house?' 'Yea,' I replied, 'among his sons now living, one has distinguished Himself by the very traits which characterised His father. By His virtuous life, His high attainments, His loving-kindness and liberality, He has proved Himself a noble descendant of a noble father.' 'What is His occupation?' he asked me. 'He cheers the disconsolate and feeds the hungry,' I replied. 'What of His rank and position?' 'He has none,' I said, 'apart from befriending the poor and the stranger.' 'What is His name?' 'Ḥusayn-`Alí.' 'In which of the scripts of His father does He excel?'[BB] 'His favourite script is shikastih-nasta`líq.' 'How does He spend His time?' 'He roams the woods and delights in the beauties of the countryside.' 'What is His age?' 'Eight and twenty.' The eagerness with which Mullá Ḥusayn questioned me, and the sense of delight with which he welcomed every particular I gave him, greatly surprised me. Turning to me, with his face beaming with satisfaction and joy, he once more enquired: 'I presume you often meet Him?' 'I frequently visit His home,' I replied. 'Will you,' he said, 'deliver into His hands a trust from me?' 'Most assuredly,' was my reply. He then gave me a scroll wrapped in a piece of cloth, and requested me to hand it to Him the next day at the hour of dawn. 'Should He deign to answer me,' he added, 'will you be kind enough to acquaint me with His reply?' I received the scroll from him and, at break of day, arose to carry out his desire.

As I approached the house of Bahá'u'lláh, I recognised His brother Mírzá Músá, who was standing at the gate, and to whom I communicated the object of my visit. He went into the house and soon reappeared bearing a message of welcome. I was ushered into His presence, and presented the scroll to Mírzá Músá, who laid it before Bahá'u'lláh. He bade us both be seated. Unfolding the scroll, He glanced at its contents and began to read aloud to us certain of its passages. I sat enraptured as I listened to the sound of His voice and the sweetness of its melody. He had read a page of the scroll when, turning to His brother, He said: 'Músá, what have you to say? Verily I say, whoso believes in the Qur'án and recognises its Divine origin, and yet hesitates, though it be for a moment, to admit that these soul-stirring words are endowed with the same regenerating power, has most assuredly erred in his judgment and has strayed far from the path of justice.' He spoke no more. Dismissing me from His presence, He charged me to take to Mullá Ḥusayn, as a gift from Him, a loaf of Russian sugar and a package of tea, and to convey to him the expression of His appreciation and love.

I arose and, filled with joy, hastened back to Mullá Ḥusayn, and delivered to him the gift and message of Bahá'u'lláh. With what joy and exultation he received them from me! Words fail me to describe the intensity of his emotion. He started to his feet, received with bowed head the gift from my hand, and fervently kissed it. He then took me in his arms, kissed my eyes, and said: 'My dearly beloved friend! I pray that even as you have rejoiced my heart, God may grant you eternal felicity and fill your heart with imperishable gladness.' I was amazed at the behaviour of Mullá Ḥusayn. What could be, I thought to myself, the nature of the bond that unites these two souls? What could have kindled so fervid a fellowship in their hearts? Why should Mullá Ḥusayn, in whose sight the pomp and circumstance of royalty were the merest trifle, have evinced such gladness at the sight of so inconsiderable a gift from the hands of Bahá'u'lláh? I was puzzled by this thought and could not unravel its mystery.

A few days later, Mullá Ḥusayn left for Khurásán. As he bade me farewell, he said: 'Breathe not to anyone what you have heard and witnessed. Let this be a secret hidden within your breast. Divulge not His name, for they who envy His position will arise to harm Him. In your moments of meditation, pray that the Almighty may protect Him, that, through Him, He may exalt the downtrodden, enrich the poor, and redeem the fallen. The secret of things is concealed from our eyes. Ours is the duty to raise the call of the New Day and to proclaim this Divine Message unto all people. Many a soul will, in this city, shed his blood in this path. That blood will water the Tree of God, will cause it to flourish, and to overshadow all mankind.'[6]

From Mashhad, the holy city that has within it the Shrine of the eighth Imám, Mullá Ḥusayn addressed his first letter to the Báb. He gave, as instructed by Him, the full details of his journey from Shíráz to Khurásán. He presented the list of names of those who had responded to the call of the new theophany: a list which had become further enriched in Khurásán by the enrolment of Mírzá Aḥmad-i-Azghandí, the most learned of the divines of that renowned province; Mullá Mírzá Muḥammad-i-Furúghí, another divine of immense learning; Mírzá Muḥammad-Báqir-i-Qá'iní, whose house in Mashhad was to gain the distinction of being known as the Bábíyyih, since its doors would be always open to those who sought Mullá Ḥusayn and to all the Bábís; Mullá Aḥmad-i-Mu`allim, who had been a tutor to the sons of Siyyid Káẓim; and Mullá Shaykh `Alí, to whom the Báb gave the title of `Aẓím (Great). But above all, Mullá Ḥusayn recounted what had transpired in Ṭihrán, culminating in the gracious response of the nobleman of Núr. He sent his letter, again as instructed by the Báb, to Ṭabas (a town in the province of Khurásán) where agents of Ḥájí Mírzá Siyyid `Alí received it and dispatched it to Yazd, whence it reached Shíráz. The arrival of Mullá Ḥusayn's letter and the tidings which it conveyed brought unbounded joy to the Báb. Soon after, in the month of September, He left Shíráz, accompanied by Quddús, and the faithful Ethiopian servant, Mubárak.

From Búshihr, while waiting to take the boat to Jiddah (Jaddah), the Báb wrote His first letter to His wife. It opens with these moving words:

'In the Name of God, exalted is He. My sweet love, may God preserve thee.' 'God is my witness,' He continues, 'that since the time of separation sorrow has been so intense that it cannot be described,' and adds His hope that God, 'the Lord of the world,' may 'facilitate the return journey in the best manner.' Two days previously He had reached Búshihr, and informs His wife that 'the weather is exceedingly hot, but God, the Lord of the world, is the Protector.' The boat, it seemed, would be sailing the same month; 'God, the Lord of the world, will provide protection by His grace.' He had not been able to see His mother at the time of His departure, and asks His wife to give her His salutation (salám) and request her prayers. He would write to Bombay for the goods required. And the letter ends thus: 'God willing, that which is decreed will come to pass. Peace be upon thee and the mercy of God and His blessings.'[7]

The ship, bearing pilgrims to Jiddah, set sail on the nineteenth day of Ramaḍán 1260—October 2nd 1844.[8]

CHAPTER 4
THE FIRST MARTYR

The world turns and the world changes,
But one thing does not change.
In all of my years, one thing does not change.
However you disguise it, this thing does not change:
The perpetual struggle of Good and Evil.
—T. S. Eliot

Lady Sheil, whose husband was the British envoy in Ṭihrán,[BC] states in her book, Glimpses of Life and Manners in Persia, that the Báb declared His mission in Káẓimayn, near Baghdád, and that 'Incensed at this blasphemy, the Turkish authorities issued orders for his execution, but he was claimed by the Persian consul as a subject of the Shah, and sent to his native place'.[1] Obviously Lady Sheil was confused. She had heard of the arrest of Mullá `Alíy-i-Basṭámí in `Iráq and of his imprisonment. She mistook him for the Báb.

Mullá `Alí, as we have seen, was directed to `Iráq by the Báb, and took with him a copy of the Qayyúmu'l-Asmá', the commentary on the Súrih of Yúsuf (Joseph). The news and the message that he gave aroused eager interest and ready response from his hearers. But hostile reaction was also swift. It was Mullá `Alí who, in Karbilá, informed Qurratu'l-`Ayn of the advent of the Báb. He was not at liberty to mention His Name. We do not know whether, in view of the fact that Qurratu'l-`Ayn had been elevated to the high and honoured position of a Letter of the Living, Mullá `Alí gave her any information other than the tidings of the appearance of the Báb. The disciples of Siyyid Káẓim were in a much stronger position there than in Najaf, in spite of the fact that in Karbilá they had a redoubtable opponent in the person of Siyyid Ibráhím-i-Qazvíní. There in Karbilá, Mullá `Alí remained safe. But the story was different in Najaf. Nabíl-i-A`ẓam writes:

In the presence of Shaykh Muḥammad-Ḥasan, one of the most celebrated ecclesiastics of shí`ah Islám, and in the face of a distinguished company of his disciples, Mullá `Alí announced fearlessly the manifestation of the Báb, the Gate whose advent they were eagerly awaiting. 'His proof,' he declared, 'is His Word; His testimony, none other than the testimony with which Islám seeks to vindicate its truth. From the pen of this unschooled Háshimite Youth of Persia there have streamed, within the space of forty-eight hours, as great a number of verses, of prayers, of homilies, and scientific treatises, as would equal in volume the whole of the Qur'án, which it took Muḥammad, the Prophet of God, twenty-three years to reveal!' That proud and fanatic leader, instead of welcoming, in an age of darkness and prejudice, these life-giving evidences of a new-born Revelation, forthwith pronounced Mullá `Alí a heretic and expelled him from the assembly. His disciples and followers, even the Shaykhís, who already testified to Mullá `Alí's piety, sincerity, and learning, endorsed, unhesitatingly, the judgment against him. The disciples of Shaykh Muḥammad-Ḥasan, joining hands with their adversaries, heaped upon him untold indignities. They eventually delivered him, his hands bound in chains, to an official of the Ottoman government, arraigning him as a wrecker of Islám, a calumniator of the Prophet, an instigator of mischief, a disgrace to the Faith, and worthy of the penalty of death. He was taken to Baghdád under the escort of government officials, and was cast into prison by the governor of that city.[2]

Áqá Muḥammad-Muṣṭafáy-i-Baghdádí,[3] in a short autobiography which he wrote at the instance of Mírzá Abu'l-Faḍí, describes Mullá `Alí's arrival in `Iráq and the events which followed:

The messenger, Mullá `Alí al-Basṭámí,[BD] reached Kúfih in the year A.H. 1260 [A.D. 1844] and distributed books, treatises and tablets amongst the divines. Due to this a body of the divines in Najaf and Karbilá were seized with consternation. They arose in opposition and stirred themselves to vociferous denunciation. The Government hearing of what had transpired, became concerned lest disorders might ensue, and deemed it politic to imprison the messenger, confiscate the books and tablets in his possession and send him to the seat of the province, that is Baghdád. The Válí, at that time, was Najíb Páshá, the same man who captured Karbilá....[BE]

When the messenger reached Baghdád the Válí kept him in prison and placed the books and the treatises in the council-chamber. My father, Shaykh Muḥammad, visited the messenger every day in the prison, and heard the Word of God from him for three months. Whatever he heard he imparted to those who were seekers, so that, during this short time, a large number of people came to believe. Shaykh Bashír an-Najafí was one of them, a mujtahid seventy-five years old. Then there were Shaykh Sulṭán al-Karbilá'í and a group with him in Karbilá; Siyyid Muḥammad-Ja`far, Siyyid Ḥasan Ja`far, and Siyyid `Alí Bishr and a group with him in the town of Káẓimíyyah; Shaykh Muḥammad Shibl [the author's father], Siyyid Muḥsin al-Káẓimí, Shaykh Ṣáliḥ al-Karímí and a group with them of villagers like Shaykh `Abbás, Mullá Maḥmúd, `Abdu'l-Hádí and Mihdí....

When the Government noticed that the Cause was gaining ground day by day, the afore-mentioned Válí, Najíb Páshá, ordered the divines of all the regions to come to Baghdád....[4] They summoned my father, Shaykh Muḥammad, to present himself. But my father left Baghdád in disguise, because he had learned that the Válí intended to make him give witness against the Cause of the Day of Judgment. They brought the messenger to this terrible assembly and asked him who the Lord of the Cause was. He answered: 'The awaited Spirit of Truth hath come. He is the One promised in the Books of God.' Then he read them some verses and prayers and called upon them to believe. It went hard with them to accept the Cause. They arose to deny and to reject it, full of haughtiness. They agreed to denounce the messenger as a heretic and passed the sentence of death upon him, and thus ended that assemblage of ill omen. The Válí sent the account of the proceedings to the Sublime Porte, whence came the orders that the messenger should be sent in fetters, together with his books, to the capital. The messenger languished for six months in the gaol of Baghdád and was then dispatched to the Sublime Porte, under escort, by way of Mosul. The fame of the Cause was noised abroad in Mosul, and when he passed Mosul nothing more was heard of him.[5]

The circumstances of Mullá `Alí's arrest were also noted by Major Henry Rawlinson,[6] then British Political Agent in Baghdád, who, on January 8th 1845, reported to Sir Stratford Canning, the Ambassador in Istanbul:

I have the honor to report for Your Excellency's information the following circumstances which are at present causing much excitement at this place, and which threaten in their consequences to give rise to renewed misunderstanding between the Persian & Turkish Govts.

About three months ago, an inferior priest of Shiraz appeared in Kerbela, bearing a copy of the Koran, which he stated to have been delivered to him, by the forerunner of the Imam Mehdi, to be exhibited in token of his approaching advent. The book proved on examination to have been altered and interpolated in many essential passages, the object being, to prepare the Mohammedan world for the immediate manifestation of the Imam, and to identify the individual to whom the emendations of the text were declared to have been revealed, as his inspired & true precursor. It was in consequence pronounced by a part of the Sheeah divines at Nejef and Kerbela, to be a blasphemous production, and the priest of Shiraz was warned by them of the danger; which he incurred in giving currency to its contents—but a considerable section nevertheless of the Sheeahs of Nejef, who under the name of Usúlí, or 'Transcendentalists', have lately risen into notice as the disciples of the High Priest Sheikh Kazem, and who are in avowed expectation of the speedy advent of the Imam, adopted the proposed readings, and declared themselves ready to join the Precursor; as soon as he should appear amongst them—These parties owing to local dissensions, were shortly afterwards denounced to the Govt. by the orthodox Sheeas as heretics, and attention being thus drawn to the perverted copy of the Koran, upon which they rested their belief, the volume was seized & its bearer being brought to Bagdad, was cast into prison, as a blasphemer against Islam and a disturber of the public peace.[ [BF][7]

Mullá `Alí was the first martyr of the Bábí Faith. Though his arrest and sufferings lasted only a few months, he was the centre of conjecture, the subject of official report, and the cause of increased rancour between the Sunní and Shí`ah sects, and the Ottoman and Iranian governments. European officials who were drawn into this obscure drama included Major Rawlinson, who submitted frequent and lengthy reports to Sir Stratford Canning in Istanbul and Lt.-Col. Sheil in Ṭihrán, and received their advice and instructions; M. de Titow, Russian envoy in Istanbul who joined Canning in urging the Sublime Porte to restrain Najíb Páshá from putting 'the Persian Priest' to death, and instead to inflict on him only 'the mildest punishment consistent with the public tranquillity'; and Lord Aberdeen, the British Foreign Secretary in London, who was apprised of the final outcome.

Although the dispatches of Major Rawlinson are in certain aspects subject to grave reservations, for his knowledge was sometimes meagre and at second hand, even inaccurate, they do portray the agitation, confusion and opposition created by the claim of the Báb and the teaching of Mullá `Alí. Thus he wrote to Canning:

The Soonnee Priesthood have taken up the case in a rancorous spirit of bigotry, and their inveteracy has enlisted the sympathies of the entire Sheeah sect, in favor of the imprisoned Persian ... the question has now become one of virulent contest, between the Soonee & Sheeah sects, or which is the same thing in this part of the Ottoman Empire, between the Turkish & Persian population....[8]

It was the Governor (Válí) of Baghdád, Najíb Páshá, who bore the responsibility of controlling these passions; but being himself a fanatical Sunní, he was resolved that the Shí`ahs should submit to the Sunní authority, and determined to bar any intrusions of the Persians into the affairs of his Páshálik.[BG] Nevertheless, as reported by Rawlinson:

Nejib Pasha at the same time, to give all due formality to his proceedings, and to divest the affair of the appearance of mere sectarian persecution, has brought in the chief Priests from Nejef & Kerbela, to hold a solemn Court of Inquisition in conjunction with the heads of the Soonnee religion in Bagdad, but I do not anticipate much benefit from this compulsory & most unwilling attendance of the former parties—They will probably make an effort to save the life of their unfortunate countryman, proposing the banishment of the messenger and of the heads of the Usúlí sect, as the simplest method of suppressing the heresy, but they will be intimidated & overruled....[9]

Indeed, such an unwieldy court of Sunní and Shí`ah divines could come to no agreement about Mullá `Alí's punishment. On January 16th 1845, Rawlinson wrote to Sheil, in Ṭihrán:

The Court of Inquisition convened for the trial of the Persian priest, was held on Monday last [January 13th], H.E. Nejib Pasha presiding, and Moola Abdool Azeez being also present, to afford his countenance to the accused—The perverted copy of the Koran being produced in Court, was unanimously condemned as a blasphemous production, and parties avowing a belief in the readings which it continued [sic], were declared to be liable to the punishment of death—It was then argued whether or not the Shirazee had thus avowed his belief in a blasphemous production—he himself distinctly repudiated the charge, and although witnesses were brought forward, who stated that he had in their presence declared his adoption of the spurious text, of which he was the bearer, yet as there was reason to suspect the fidelity of their evidence, the Sheeah divines were disposed to give him the benefit of his present disavowal—After much discussion the Soonee law-officers adjudged the culprit to be convicted of blasphemy & passed sentence of death on him accordingly, while the Sheeahs returned a verdict, that he was only guilty of the dissemination of blasphemy, & liable in consequence to no heavier punishment than imprisonment or banishment....

To this Rawlinson added:

I understand that considerable uneasiness is beginning to display itself at Kerbela & Nejef, in regard to the expected manifestation of the Imam, and I am apprehensive that the measures now in progress will rather increase than allay the excitement.[BH][10]

The personal intervention of Najíb Páshá had served also to influence the course of events in another way. By referring the matter to the Sublime Porte, he prevented the extradition of the Persian prisoner to his native land, as requested by the Iranian Prime Minister, Ḥájí Mírzá Áqásí.

A similar request for the transfer of Mullá `Alí to Persian jurisdiction was made to Major Rawlinson by the Governor of Kirmánsháh, Muḥibb-`Alí Khán, for, as he wrote:

In the first place it is improper to arrest and imprison anyone on a mere accusation, which may be true or false,—and in the second place, supposing that he (the Shirázee) were guilty; as a subject of the exalted Govt. of Persia, he ought not to be subject to arrest—if his crime were proved, his punishment should be that of banishment from the Turkish territory—I have therefore considered it necessary to represent this matter to you my friend, and to request that, as a well wisher to the preservation of friendship between the two Governments, You will communicate with H. Excy. Nejib Pasha on the subject, and will suggest to him, that if the guilt of the Persian be fully substantiated, he may be sent to Kermanshah, in order that I may transfer him to Tehran for punishment—and if on the other hand, the accusations against him prove to be malicious and without foundation, he may be at once released and set at liberty.

Under any circumstances his continued imprisonment is unbecoming and contrary (to custom).[11] ]

This request was duly submitted by Rawlinson to Najíb Páshá but, as the Governor had already referred the matter to the Sublime Porte after the religious court's examination, the prisoner remained in Turkish custody.

It was on April 15th that Rawlinson reported to Canning that 'Nejib Pasha received orders by yesterday's post to transmit to Constantinople the Persian priest who has been in confinement for the last 3 months at Bagdad.... His Excy. is preparing to obey these instructions with all available despatch.' He also says in the same letter:

... [the] more in fact these Mujtiheds[BI] are degraded by the Turkish Govt., the more complete, I think, will be their ascendancy over the minds of their disciples and the only results, therefore, which are likely to attend the proscription of their public duties, are the more complete isolation of the Persian community of this province, and an increase of the rancorous feeling with which the dominant Soonee party is regarded—[12] ]

On the last day of April, Rawlinson wrote once more to Canning:

I take this opportunity of reporting that the Persian priest of Shiraz so long detained in confinement at this place, was sent a prisoner to Constantinople in company with the Tartar [BJ] who conveyed the last Bagdad post.[13]

Meanwhile, as early as February, Major Rawlinson came to an erroneous conclusion about the Báb, which subsequent events belied. He wrote to Canning on the 18th:

... the excitement which has been for some time prevalent in this vicinity among the Sheeah sect in connection with the expected manifestation of the Imam Mehdi, is beginning gradually to subside, the impostor who personated the character of the forerunner of the Imam ... having been deterred by a sense of personal danger from a further prosecution of the agitation, which he set on foot at Kerbela in the Autumn on his passage from Persia to Mecca.[14]

He was also in error in stating to Sheil, ten days later, that 'the impostor ... joined as a private individual the Caravan of pilgrims which is travelling to Persia by the route of Damascus and Aleppo'.[15]

In considering this episode of the arrest, imprisonment and banishment of the first Bábí martyr, there are four aspects which deserve special note. First is the fact that while the Bábís in Shíráz were being punished by Ḥusayn Khán, Governor of the province of Fárs,[BK] the Persian Government was trying to rescue Mullá `Alí in Baghdád. Secondly, whereas the Shí`ah divines were demanding a light punishment, the Sunnís were clamouring for the death penalty. A third point, important to students of the Bábí Faith, is that from the earliest stage of its history rumours and misinformation about the Báb abounded. It is also of considerable interest that this episode was reported to Lord Aberdeen, the British Foreign Secretary in London.

As to Mullá `Alí, what precisely happened to him, how and where he died and where he was interred, have all remained mysteries. It has been said that he died in the prison of Karkúk, but no definite proof exists. He was the first of the concourse of martyrs whose numbers were soon to swell into hundreds and thousands.

CHAPTER 5
PILGRIMAGE TO MECCA: THE HOUSE OF KA`BAH

Vaunt not thyself, O thou who leadeth the pilgrims on their way,
That which thou seest is the House, and that which I see is the
Lord of that House.
—Ḥáfiẓ

The Báb embarked for Jiddah, probably on an Arab sailing-boat named Futúḥ-ar-Rasúl—Victories of the Messenger. If so, He had as fellow-passenger a maternal uncle of Muḥammad Sháh, Muḥammad-Báqir Khán, the Biglarbagí[BL] of Ṭihrán, who was attended by Shukru'lláh Khán-i-Núrí, a prominent official of the province of Fárs. We know for certain that two of His fellow-townsmen on the boat were Ḥájí Abu'l-Ḥasan, who pursued the same trade as the Báb's father, and Shaykh Abú-Háshim, brother of Shaykh Abú-Turáb, the Imám-Jum`ih of Shíráz. The former was captivated by the charm and the sublime bearing of his compatriot, the young Siyyid of whose claim he was unaware, and gave Him his allegiance without the slightest hesitation when he learned of His claim. Shaykh Abú-Háshim, however, was already jealous of the respect commanded by the Báb and became His implacable enemy, even though his brother, the Imám-Jum`ih, served the interests of the Báb to the best of his ability.[1]

Ḥájí Abu'l-Ḥasan has related[2] that during the voyage Shaykh Abú-Háshim became daily more arrogant and quarrelsome, molesting the passengers and making the young Siyyid a particular target for his invective. When the Arab captain could no longer tolerate his insolent behaviour, he ordered him to be seized and thrown into the sea. According to Ḥájí Abu'l-Ḥasan, it was the Báb who stepped forward to intercede for him. However, the captain was determined to be rid of the troublesome Shaykh. And when the Báb noticed that the sailors were about to throw Shaykh Abú-Háshim overboard, He hurled Himself upon him, caught hold of him and earnestly requested the captain to pardon the wrong-doer. The Arab captain was astonished, because it had been the young Siyyid who had suffered most from the Shaykh's malice. But the Báb replied that, since people who behaved in that manner harmed only themselves, one should be tolerant and forgiving.

The rites of the Ḥajj (pilgrimage to Mecca) are to be performed on the ninth and tenth days of the month of Dhi'l-Ḥijjah, the last month of the Muslim lunar year. On the tenth day the `Íd-al-Aḍḥá (the Festival of Sacrifices) is celebrated throughout the Muslim world.[BM] It commemorates the sacrifice offered by Abraham of His son. Whenever the `Íd-al-Aḍḥá falls on a Friday, the Ḥajj of that year is termed the Ḥajj-i-Akbar (the Greatest Ḥajj). In the year 1260, the tenth of Dhi'l-Ḥijjah was a Friday (December 20th 1844), and therefore the number of pilgrims was commensurately greater. An Islamic tradition points to the appearance of the Qá'im in a year of the Ḥajj-i-Akbar.

Another particularly notable pilgrim in that year 1260 was a divine of high repute, Siyyid Ja`far-i-Kashfí, whose son Siyyid Yaḥyá (later known as Vaḥíd) was to become one of the most distinguished followers of the Báb.

The journey to Jiddah was long, tedious and exhausting. Seas were rough and storms frequent. An Arab sailing-boat did not afford much comfort. 'For days we suffered from the scarcity of water. I had to content myself with the juice of sweet lemon,' the Báb writes in the Persian Bayán.[3] Ḥájí Abu'l-Ḥasan recounts:

During the entire period of approximately two months, from the day we embarked at Búshihr to the day when we landed at Jaddih, the port of Ḥijáz, whenever by day or night I chanced to meet either the Báb or Quddús, I invariably found them together, both absorbed in their work. The Báb seemed to be dictating, and Quddús was busily engaged in taking down whatever fell from His lips. Even at a time when panic seemed to have seized the passengers of that storm-tossed vessel, they would be seen pursuing their labours with unperturbed confidence and calm. Neither the violence of the elements nor the tumult of the people around them could either ruffle the serenity of their countenance or turn them from their purpose.[4]

At Jiddah the Báb and His companions put on the iḥrám,[BN] the garb of the pilgrim. He travelled to Mecca on a camel, but Quddús would not mount and walked all the way, keeping pace with it. On the tenth day of Dhi'l-Ḥijjah the Báb offered the prescribed sacrifice. The meat of the nineteen lambs which He bought was all given to the poor and the needy; nine of the animals were sacrificed on His own behalf, seven on behalf of Quddús and three for Mubárak.[5]

Ḥájí Mírzá Ḥabíbu'lláh-i-Afnán, quoting Ḥájí Abu'l-Ḥasan, relates in his chronicle that after the completion of the rites of the Ḥajj, at a time when the court of the House of Ka`bah and the roofs of adjoining houses teemed with pilgrims, the Báb stood against the structure of the Ka`bah, laid hold of the ring on its door and thrice repeated, in a clear voice:

I am that Qá'im whose advent you have been awaiting.

Ḥájí Abu'l-Ḥasan recalled, many years later, that a sudden hush fell upon the audience. The full implication of those momentous words must, at the time, have eluded that vast concourse of people. But the news of the claim of the young Siyyid soon spread in an ever-widening circle.

One day in Mecca, the Báb came face to face with Mírzá Muḥammad-Ḥusayn-i-Kirmání, known as Muḥíṭ.[BO] They happened to meet close by the sacred Black Stone (Ḥajar al-Aswad). The Báb took Muḥíṭ's hand, saying:

O Muḥíṭ! You regard yourself as one of the most outstanding figures of the shaykhí community and a distinguished exponent of its teachings. In your heart you even claim to be one of the direct successors and rightful inheritors of those twin great Lights, those Stars that have heralded the morn of Divine guidance. Behold, we are both now standing within this most sacred shrine. Within its hallowed precincts, He whose Spirit dwells in this place can cause Truth immediately to be known and distinguished from falsehood, and righteousness from error. Verily I declare, none besides Me in this day, whether in the East or in the West, can claim to be the Gate that leads men to the knowledge of God. My proof is none other than that proof whereby the truth of the Prophet Muḥammad was established. Ask Me whatsoever you please; now, at this very moment, I pledge Myself to reveal such verses as can demonstrate the truth of My mission. You must choose either to submit yourself unreservedly to My Cause or to repudiate it entirely. You have no other alternative. If you choose to reject My message, I will not let go your hand until you pledge your word to declare publicly your repudiation of the Truth which I have proclaimed. Thus shall He who speaks the Truth be made known, and he that speaks falsely shall be condemned to eternal misery and shame. Then shall the way of Truth be revealed and made manifest to all men.

Muḥíṭ was taken by surprise and was overwhelmed. He replied to the Báb:

My Lord, my Master! Ever since the day on which my eyes beheld You in Karbilá, I seemed at last to have found and recognised Him who had been the object of my quest. I renounce whosoever has failed to recognise You, and despise him in whose heart may yet linger the faintest misgivings as to Your purity and holiness. I pray You to overlook my weakness, and entreat You to answer me in my perplexity. Please God I may, at this very place, within the precincts of this hallowed shrine, swear my fealty to You, and arise for the triumph of Your Cause. If I be insincere in what I declare, if in my heart I should disbelieve what my lips proclaim, I would deem myself utterly unworthy of the grace of the Prophet of God, and regard my action as an act of manifest disloyalty to `Alí, His chosen successor.

The Báb knew how vacillating Muḥíṭ was, and answered:

Verily I say, the Truth is even now known and distinguished from falsehood. O shrine of the Prophet of God, and you, O Quddús, who have believed in Me! I take you both, in this hour, as My witnesses. You have seen and heard that which has come to pass between Me and him. I call upon you to testify thereunto, and God, verily, is, beyond and above you, My sure and ultimate Witness. He is the All-Seeing, the All-Knowing, the All-Wise. O Muḥíṭ! Set forth whatsoever perplexes your mind, and I will, by the aid of God, unloose My tongue and undertake to resolve your problems, so that you may testify to the excellence of My utterance and realise that no one besides Me is able to manifest My wisdom.[6]

Muḥíṭ presented his questions and then departed hurriedly for Medina. The Báb, in answer to them, revealed the Ṣaḥífiy-i-Baynu'l-Ḥaramayn, which, as its name 'The Epistle Between the Two Shrines' indicates, was composed on the road to the city of the Prophet (Medina). Muḥíṭ, contrary to his promise, did not remain long in Medina, but received the Báb's treatise in Karbilá. To the end of his days, Muḥíṭ was shifty and irresolute, and the headship of the Shaykhí community did not go to him, but to Ḥájí Muḥammad-Karím Khán-i-Kirmání.

The last act of the Báb in Mecca was to address a Tablet to the Sharíf (Sherif) of Mecca, in which He proclaimed His advent and His Divine mandate. Quddús delivered it together with a volume of the Writings of the Báb. But the Sharíf was preoccupied and ignored the communication put in his hands. Ḥájí Níyáz-i-Baghdádí recounts:

In the year 1267 A.H. [A.D. 1850-51], I undertook a pilgrimage to that holy city, where I was privileged to meet the Sherif. In the course of his conversation with me, he said: 'I recollect that in the year '60, during the season of pilgrimage, a youth came to visit me. He presented to me a sealed book which I readily accepted but was too much occupied at that time to read. A few days later I met again that same youth, who asked me whether I had any reply to make to his offer. Pressure of work had again detained me from considering the contents of that book. I was therefore unable to give him a satisfactory reply. When the season of pilgrimage was over, one day, as I was sorting out my letters, my eyes fell accidentally upon that book. I opened it and found, in its introductory pages, a moving and exquisitely written homily which was followed by verses the tone and language of which bore a striking resemblance to the Qur'án. All that I gathered from the perusal of the book was that among the people of Persia a man of the seed of Fáṭimih and descendant of the family of Háshim, had raised a new call, and was announcing to all people the appearance of the promised Qá'im. I remained, however, ignorant of the name of the author of that book, nor was I informed of the circumstances attending that call.' 'A great commotion,' I remarked, 'has indeed seized that land during the last few years. A Youth, a descendant of the Prophet and a merchant by profession, has claimed that His utterance was the Voice of Divine inspiration. He has publicly asserted that, within the space of a few days, there could stream from His tongue verses of such number and excellence as would surpass in volume and beauty the Qur'án itself—a work which it took Muḥammad no less than twenty-three years to reveal. A multitude of people, both high and low, civil and ecclesiastical, among the inhabitants of Persia, have rallied round His standard and have willingly sacrificed themselves in His path. That Youth has, during the past year, in the last days of the month of Sha`bán [July 1850], suffered martyrdom in Tabríz, in the province of Ádhirbáyján. They who persecuted Him sought by this means to extinguish the light which He kindled in that land. Since His martyrdom, however, His influence has pervaded all classes of people.' The Sherif, who was listening attentively, expressed his indignation at the behaviour of those who had persecuted the Báb. 'The malediction of God be upon these evil people,' he exclaimed, 'a people who, in days past, treated in the same manner our holy and illustrious ancestors!' With these words the Sherif concluded his conversation with me.[7]

The Báb reached Medina on the first day of the year A.H. 1261: Friday, January 10th 1845.[8] It was the first of Muḥarram and the day of His birth. From Medina He proceeded to Jiddah, where He took a boat bound for the port of Búshihr.

CHAPTER 6
FORCES OF OPPOSITION ARRAYED

But man, proud man,
Drest in a little brief authority,
Most ignorant of what he's most assured,
His glassy essence, like an angry ape,
Plays such fantastic tricks before high heaven
As makes the angels weep....
—Shakespeare

The London Times of Wednesday, November 19th 1845, carried this item of news on its third page, taken from the Literary Gazette of the preceding Saturday:

Mahometan Schism.—A new sect has lately set itself up in Persia, at the head of which is a merchant who had returned from a pilgrimage to Mecca, and proclaimed himself a successor of the Prophet. The way they treat such matters at Shiraz appears in the following account (June 23):—Four persons being heard repeating their profession of faith according to the form prescribed by the impostor, were apprehended, tried, and found guilty of unpardonable blasphemy. They were sentenced to lose their beards by fire being set to them. The sentence was put into execution with all the zeal and fanaticism becoming a true believer in Mahomet. Not deeming the loss of beards a sufficient punishment, they were further sentenced the next day, to have their faces blacked and exposed through the city. Each of them was led by a mirgazah[BP] (executioner), who had made a hole in his nose and passed through it a string, which he sometimes pulled with such violence that the unfortunate fellows cried out alternately for mercy from the executioner and for vengeance from Heaven. It is the custom in Persia on such occasions for the executioners to collect money from the spectators, and particularly from the shopkeepers in the bazaar. In the evening when the pockets of the executioners were well filled with money, they led the unfortunate fellows to the city gate, and there turned them adrift. After which the mollahs at Shiraz sent men to Bushire, with power to seize the impostor, and take him to Shiraz, where, on being tried, he very wisely denied the charge of apostacy laid against him, and thus escaped from punishment.

An American quarterly, the Eclectic Magazine of Foreign Literature, Science, and Art,[1] in its issue of January-April 1846, reproduced the same item of news which was again taken in full from the Literary Gazette of London. As far as is known, these were the earliest references to the Faith of the Báb in any Western publication. British merchants, who then happened to be in Shíráz, were responsible for that report, which, as we shall see, although correct in its essentials, was not devoid of error.

The Báb, returning from His pilgrimage to Mecca, arrived at Búshihr sometime in the month of Ṣafar 1261 A.H. (February-March 1845). There He parted from Quddús, saying:

The days of your companionship with Me are drawing to a close. The hour of separation has struck, a separation which no reunion will follow except in the Kingdom of God, in the presence of the King of Glory.[2]

Quddús left for Shíráz and took with him a letter from the Báb addressed to His uncle, Ḥájí Mírzá Siyyid `Alí. Meeting Quddús and hearing all he had to impart convinced Ḥájí Mírzá Siyyid `Alí of the truth of the Cause of his Nephew, and he immediately pledged Him his unqualified allegiance.

Mullá Ṣádiq-i-Muqaddas now reached Shíráz, accompanied by Mullá `Alí-Akbar-i-Ardistání, who had once been his pupil in Iṣfahán. Mullá Ṣádiq established himself in a mosque known as Báqir-Ábád, where he led the congregation in prayer. But as soon as he received a Tablet from the Báb, sent from Búshihr, he moved to the mosque adjoining His house. There he carried out the specific instruction of the Báb to include in the traditional Islamic Call to Prayer—the Adhán—these additional words: 'I bear witness that He whose name is `Alí Qabl-i-Muḥammad [`Alí preceding Muḥammad, the Báb] is the servant of Baqíyyatu'lláh [the Remnant of God, Bahá'u'lláh].'[3]

Then the storm broke. Shaykh Abú-Háshim, notorious for his behaviour on the pilgrim boat, had already written to his compatriots in Shíráz to arouse their fury. Now the divines of that city, led by Shaykh Ḥusayn-i-`Arab,[BQ] Ḥájí Shaykh Mihdíy-i-Kujúrí and Mullá Muḥammad-`Alíy-i-Maḥallátí, were demanding blood. Quddús, Muqaddas and Mullá `Alí-Akbar were arrested, hauled before the Governor-General, and mercilessly beaten, after which they suffered the punishments and indignities described in the London report already quoted (see p. [76]). But there were three of them, not four.[BR]

The Governor-General of the province of Fárs was Ḥusayn Khán, who was called Ájúdán-Báshí (the adjutant-major), and had also the titles of Ṣáḥib-Ikhtíyár and Niẓámu'd-Dawlih. Ḥusayn Khán was a native of Marághih in Ádharbáyján, and had served as Persian envoy both to London and Paris. In London, in June 1839, Lord Palmerston was at first inclined not to meet him, but then decided to receive him unofficially. At that time relations between Britain and Írán had reached a low point. Captain Hennell, the British Political Agent, had been forced to withdraw from Búshihr, and at the same time a British naval force had occupied the island of Khárg (Karrack). Palmerston thundered at Ḥusayn Khán: 'Had the Admiral on arriving on board turned his guns upon the town [Búshihr] and knocked it about their ears, in my opinion he would have been justified in so doing'.[4] When the envoy returned home, Muḥammad Sháh was so displeased that he had him severely bastinadoed. Nor had Ḥusayn Khán's mission to France, it would seem, been any more successful, although some obscurity surrounds his dealings with the French. In Paris he engaged a number of officers to train the Persian army, and there were irregularities in the matter of their travelling expenses. But more serious issues were involved, which are described by Sir Henry Layard[BS] in the following passage:

M. Boré,[BT] with all his learning and enlightenment, was a religious fanatic and profoundly intolerant of heretics. After residing with him for a fortnight, and having been treated by him with great kindness and hospitality, I found myself compelled, to my great sorrow, to leave his house [in 1840] under the following circumstances. The Embassy which the King of the French[BU] had sent to the Shah had not succeeded in obtaining the object of its mission, and had left Persia much irritated at its failure, which was mainly attributed by it and the French Government to English intrigues. The truth was, I believe, that they had been duped by Hussein Khan, who had been sent as ambassador to Paris. The subject was an unpleasant one for me to discuss, and I avoided it in conversation with my host. One day, however, at dinner, it was raised by M. Flandin,[5] the French artist, who denounced my country and countrymen in very offensive terms, M. Boré himself joining in the abuse. They accused the English Government and English agents of having had recourse to poison to prevent Frenchmen from establishing themselves and gaining influence in Persia, and of having actually engaged assassins to murder M. Outray, when on his way on a diplomatic mission to Tehran. I denied, with indignation, these ridiculous and calumnious charges, and high words having ensued, I moved from M. Boré's house to a ruined building occupied by Mr. Burgess.[BV][6]

Failure in London and tortuosity in Paris did not commend themselves to Muḥammad Sháh; and so, for the next few years, Ḥusayn Khán lived under a cloud. But in 1845 we find him riding high in the province of Fárs. He had been given that governorship because he was reputed to be a man stern in his judgments, and Fárs needed an iron hand.

Indeed Fárs had been in a terrifying plight. The people of Shíráz, high and low alike, had effectively played cat and mouse with the governors sent from Ṭihrán to rule over them. Firaydún Mírzá, the Farmán-Farmá, Muḥammad Sháh's own brother, much favoured by Ḥájí Mírzá Áqásí and much detested by the Shírázís, was ousted by a combination of the grandees and the mob.

Mírzá Nabí Khán-i-Qazvíní, the Amír-i-Díván,[7] was also forced out, not once, but twice. On the second occasion many leading citizens—headed by Ḥájí Qavámu'l-Mulk[8] and Muḥammad-Qulí Khán-i-Ílbagí, a powerful chieftain of the Qashqá'í tribe—went to Ṭihrán, to demand the reinstatement of Firaydún Mírzá, whom they had previously challenged and maligned. Muḥammad Sháh kept them waiting in the capital. Mírzá Riḍá (Meerza Reza), the acting British Agent in Shíráz, reported on August 7th 1844 to Captain Hennell in Búshihr:

On the Evening of the 11th Rajab [July 28th] one of the King's Chapurs [couriers] arrived at Shiraz, bringing two Royal Firmans [edicts] which had been issued at the instance of His Excellency Colonel Sheil, to be published at Shiraz and Bushire....

One day the people, consisting of the principal and respectable Inhabitants and Merchants, were assembled in the Mosque, in order to hear the Firman from the Pulpit, when the turbulent and evil [sic] disposed tumultuously rushed in to prevent its being read, because addressed to the Ameer [Amír, the Governor]; These were of the followers of the Hajee Kuwaum [Ḥájí Qavám]. The Ameer then gave the Shiraz Firman into the hands of Resheed Khan, Surteep [Rashíd Khán-i-Sartíp], who took it to the New Mosque in the Naamutee [Ni`matí-Khánih] Quarter,[9] where it was published from the Reading Desks to the assembled Moollahs, respectable Inhabitants, and Merchants.

On the following day when the Ameer directed that the Firman should be read in the Dewan Khaneh [Díván-Khánih—the Court], the rioters fully armed again rushed in impetuously. Syed Hussein Khan and Resheed Khan then assembled their followers and topchees [túpchí: gunner], and complaining bitterly, requested permission to meet them ... nor was it without difficulty and much persuasion that the Ameer could induce them to desist pending instructions from the Capital.

The several Quarters of Shiraz are for the most part at feud—Thieving and disturbance are on the increase—The Ameer has not been dismissed nor has a new Governor been appointed.[10]

And matters went from bad to worse. Mírzá Riḍá's report to his chief, the following November 24th, was one long catalogue of woes, not totally devoid of amusing points:

Last Friday, from the ten Quarters of Hyedree [Ḥaydarí] and Naamutte [Ni`matí] a Mob and Crowd was again collected in the open plain, which has ever been the scene of their conflicts, for the purpose of fighting. From Midday to Sunset they fought with slings and stones, sticks and arms.... As Meerza Mahomed Ali, the secretary of Hajee Kuwam [Ḥájí Qavám], a fine intelligent youth, was leaving his dwelling about midday upon some business, a drunken lootee,[BW] without reason or previous quarrel, plunged a dagger into his right side ... two cousins, both young, in a state of Drunkenness, were disputing regarding a woman, no person not even the woman being present, when one struck a dagger into the thigh of the other, who expired two days after ... some men of the Fehlee[BX] Tribe were sitting together one night, talking over occurrences of former years, when ... an excellent horseman, was shot in the side with a pistol, and immediately yielded his life.[11]

Qubád Khán, a nephew of the Ílkhání (the supreme head of the Qashqá'í tribe), who governed Fírúzábád in the heart of the Qashqá'í terrain, had, for a financial consideration, put armed men at the disposal of some headmen of the village of Maymand to settle a vendetta—and so the story trails on.

Towards the end of the year 1844 Ḥusayn Khán was given the governorship of Fárs, but as late as December 21st and December 24th Mírzá Riḍá was still pouring out tales of woe to Captain Hennell in Búshihr. Matters had reached such a pitch, he said, that people were stripped naked in plain daylight in public thoroughfares, and if anyone offered resistance he was repeatedly stabbed; at night so many matchlocks were fired at random that no sleep was possible, and in any case people had to keep awake to guard their homes. The unpleasant yet humorous experience of a physician clearly shows the breakdown of law in Shíráz at that time:

... some of the Alwat[BY] brought a horse to the door of a Physician's Dispensary, whose equipment and clothes were of the best, saying, 'We have an invalid who is very ill, take the trouble to come to him and we will attend you.' The Poor Physician starts for the sickman's [sic] dwelling, and they take him through two or three streets when they desire him to be so good as to dismount from the horse; he does so, and they strip him from head to foot and go their way.[12]

During that period of anarchy the Báb was on pilgrimage and absent from Shíráz. Ḥusayn Khán arrived at his post in the early part of 1845, when the Báb was about halfway back to His native land. The new Governor set about with all dispatch to give the Shírázís a lesson which he was certain they would take to heart. There were mutilations and executions until order was finally restored. But in little more than three years when Muḥammad Sháh died, Shírázís, headed once again by the astute Ḥájí Qavámu'l-Mulk and the headstrong Muḥammad-Qulí Khán (the Ílbagí[BZ] of the Qashqá'ís), rebelled and forced the dismissal of Ḥusayn Khán.

Ḥusayn Khán was the first official in Persia to raise his hand against the Báb and His people. Having meted out cruel punishments to Quddús and the other two Bábís, and having acquainted himself with the identity of the Báb and ascertained that He had arrived at Búshihr, Ḥusayn Khán commissioned a body of horsemen to go to that port, arrest the Báb and bring Him to Shíráz. In the meantime the Báb had completed His arrangements to return to the city of His birth.

At Dálakí, some forty miles to the north-east of Búshihr, where the coastal plain ends and the plateau begins to rise, Ḥusayn Khán's horsemen encountered the Báb. He was the first to notice them and sent His Ethiopian servant to call them to Him. They were reluctant to approach Him, but Aṣlán Khán, a man senior in their ranks, accepted the invitation. However, to the Báb's query regarding the purpose of their mission they evasively replied that the Governor had sent them to make some investigation in that neighbourhood. But the Báb said to them:

The governor has sent you to arrest Me. Here am I; do with Me as you please. By coming out to meet you, I have curtailed the length of your march, and have made it easier for you to find Me.[13]